Disabled British woman misses flight due to ‘fatal error’ in airport staff | for travel

Briton Lynn Smiley (49 years old) suffers from muscular dystrophy that prevents her from climbing the stairs on her own. The woman flew from the UK to Spain with her husband Stephen, 54, at the end of May. To get into the plane, the woman received assistance from ABM, a company that helps disabled people at airports.

They usually put us in a wheelchair first, but they didn’t. There were about five of us, but they made us wait until the end,” Smiley said, according to British Tube. The woman was said to have been put into an elevator while other passengers were on board.

According to Smiley, a Swissport employee came to ask for boarding passes, but that person was leaving without further explanation.

When an ABM employee picked up the couple from the elevator, that person was said to have refused to board simply because they no longer had their boarding passes.

The ABM employee had already clarified the incident with the Swissport employee, but it was already too late for the couple to intervene. He would have said “The pilot is no longer kissing you, my apologies.”

The couple eventually arrived in Benidorm for another flight the next day. According to a Ryanair spokesperson, they were rebooked “for free”.