At the outset let me say that I fully respect the needs of genuine wheelchair passengers when it comes to priority boarding.

This past Sunday my wife and I flew BA795 HEL LHR; we were sat in 12E and 12F. Although we were in group one for boarding the first passengers to board were a man in a wheelchair and his able-bodied female companion. Fair enough. From memory I believe they were sat in row 8.

Disembarkation upon arrival at LHR T3 was the usual slow process for a single aisle aircraft. At first the couple in row 8 remained seated, but spotting a gap immediately in front of me in the queue of disembarking passengers, the wheelchair passenger suddenly sprang out of his seat into the aisle. He then spent a good 30 seconds scrabbling around in the overhead locker for his bag and walking stick. He then shuffled up the aisle to disembark, where he was met by a female assistant who proceeded to slowly escort him 50 metres or so up the air bridge to a waiting wheelchair.

While all this was going on fully two-thirds of the passengers remaining on board were backed-up behind this one passenger.

I thought the deal with wheelchair passengers was first on, last off. Either you can embark and disembark under your own steam or you cannot. What involvement does the cabin crew have with such situations? For this particular passenger he was having his cake and eating it.