Wheelchair user crawls down a Ryanair flight in Sweden

A wheelchair user went through extreme "humiliation" after he was made to crawl down a Ryanair flight because of an “unacceptable” delay in assistance.

The 37-year-old victim, Adrian Keogh, said that he wants the airlines and airports to make more arrangements for people with disabilities after he went through the embarrassing ordeal at Landvetter Airport in Sweden on Saturday.

Keogh, who is from Wicklow in Ireland, said that he had done the booking beforehand to ensure he received the kind of support he needed during flying.

However, when the flight landed, Keogh was told that the lift required to bring him down the flight in his wheelchair would take at least an hour to arrive. He stated that he decided to crawl off the plane because he was experiencing pain and was not willing to wait until midnight to leave.

Speaking to The Independent, Keogh said, “It was very destroying, to be honest going through that because all anyone wants is to be treated equally. For someone to say you have to be an hour waiting on the plane for no fault of my own is totally ridiculous."

“A person in a wheelchair has different issues, I have spinal injuries personally myself, some people have other issues but with any disability, we just want to be treated equally," he added.

Keogh added that he began to “bum shuffle” down the steps.

“My brother wanted to lift me down but I decided not to because it’s too unsafe in case we fell. He was at the bottom of the steps making sure my wheelchair was ready," he said,

He further took to social media to share his harrowing experience.

In his Instagram post, Keogh shared images in which he was seen crawling down the metal stairs in a seated position.

The post read, “Please excuse the bad picture but this is a photo of myself having to crawl off a Ryanair flight which landed in Landvetter Airport tonight at 11 pm. I am as some may know a full-time wheelchair user and paid extra for special assistance to be lifted off the plane down to my wheelchair."

“It's unacceptable to expect me to crawl down the steep metal steps, but on arrival, I was informed that it would be at least one hour before they would have the lift available to help me off the plane so what option had I but to crawl off the plane," he added.

Commenting on Keogh's post, Landvetter Airport apologised for the delay in assisting and said that delay happened because of another medical emergency.

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The airport stated, “Dear Sir, we are sorry for your experience. Due to some delays last night, there were more planes landing around the same time as your flight. With several booked assistants requirements, including yours, and a medical emergency simultaneously, caused a pushed [sic] forward.”

In a statement to The Independent, the airport further stated, “We deeply regret Mr Keogh’s experience at Göteborg Landvetter Airport on Saturday.

“Due to several unforeseen events, the assistance service at the airport was affected by longer waiting times and not up to our usual standard of service, although airport procedures were followed. As a consequence, the assistance service was delayed however by no means ‘forgotten’," it added.

Meanwhile, a Ryanair spokesperson said, “Special assistance at Landvetter Airport is managed by a third-party provider - not Ryanair. We regret that Landvetter Airport failed to provide Special Assistance to this passenger upon arrival at Landvetter on April 29 and we are working with Landvetter Airport to ensure this does not recur.”

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