Sophie Morgan was furious when she found her wheelchair had been ‘destroyed’ after checking it in for a flight, forcing her to sit on an aisle chair that was ‘not safe’
Loose Women star Sophie Morgan says she was left stranded after airport staff ‘destroyed’ her wheelchair.
The presenter and disability advocate, 37, said she “landed at Heathrow with a bang” after finding her chair had been ‘damaged’.
Taking to Instagram sharing a video of the chair, which Sophie had checked in from Los Angeles, she said: “Someone – no one took responsibility – decided to attach my wheelchair and my batec (battery-powered attachment) whilst in transit (they were checked in separately, in two parts, unattached) and they have done so a. without my permission and b. COMPLETELY WRONG.
“It took over half an hour to ‘break’ them apart, all that time I had to sit on an aisle chair which was NOT safe and I didn’t know if I would be able to get back into my chair.”
Sophie said she was eventually able to get back into her chair after the batec was broken apart, but said it was not safe, adding she’d found further damage.
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She continued: “And what was I told to do by British Airways? Send an email via the website.
Loose Women star Sophie Morgan says she was left stranded after airport staff ‘destroyed’ her wheelchair (
Image:
Instagram)
Sophie said she felt ‘unsafe’ after the experience (
Image:
Instagram)
“This has GOT TO STOP. Thousands of chairs are damaged every year by airlines. It’s just #planewrong.”
The post was met with a flurry of support from Sophie’s followers, with one person replying: “This makes me so angry. As a physio we encourage our clients to go live life, travel but this just highlights why so many wheelchair users are afraid to travel. Showing such little respect for an individuals belongings is just unimaginable and unacceptable.”
When contacted by the Mirror, BA said: “We’re extremely sorry for Sophie’s experience and we’re investigating what happened as a matter of urgency. We’ve been in contact with Sophie to sincerely apologise and to resolve the matter with her directly.
“We carry hundreds of thousands of customers who require additional assistance each year and we work hard to provide help and support them throughout the whole journey. It’s extremely disheartening when things go wrong, and we don’t underestimate the impact this has.
The chair and the battery attachment had been checked in separately (
Image:
Instagram)
Sophie said thousands of chairs are damaged each year by airlines (
Image:
Instagram)“We’re committed to ensuring we deliver a consistently good service, and we’ll be working closely with Sophie and our dedicated accessibility teams to discuss how we can continue to make improvements to ensure a great flying experience for everyone.”
Sophie was just 18 and a “very inexperienced” driver when she was involved in a car crash that left her instantly paralysed from the chest down in 2003.
The star was hospitalised and rehabilitated for three months and now uses a wheelchair as a result of a spinal injury.
Speaking about what it’s like to “wake up with a different body” following a life-changing accident, Sophie explained she sometimes feels like she has lived two different lives.
“Non-disabled and disabled are very different experiences,” she began telling OK! magazine.
“It does feel like two different lives. The person I became after my injury is very different to the person I was. I’ve grown up, obviously, as I was a kid, but those two realities, personalities, identities definitely feel very split.”
Asked whether she would go back in time and warn herself not to get behind the wheel that day, the presenter pointed out the answer wasn’t straightforward.
“Anyone who has had trauma in their lives that hasn’t killed them but has made them stronger can relate, I think,” she said.
“You don’t know if you would go back and change the course of events, because if you did then you wouldn’t be where you are.”
