A disabled passenger had to resort to calling police after a three-and-a-half-hour battle to leave Manchester Airport during the early hours.
Daryl Tavernor, 33, was stranded on the plane for two hours after the delayed flight from Rome to Manchester landed at 2.30am. The digital marketer, who has spinal muscular atrophy and requires special assistance, said he was left stuck at border control for about another 90 minutes before calling police.
Daryl told the Manchester Evening News: "I felt like I was being held hostage so I had no other option but to call the police".
He added: "All the other passengers were able to get off the plane as quickly as they could. It usually only takes around 10 to 15 minutes for special assistance to get me off the plane. But it was just me and the crew and captain stuck for another two hours.
"The captain got so annoyed he went to find special assistance himself. I was told they didn't come straight away as they don't usually have planes landing at this time, but they can't plead ignorance, the captain would have told them everything on our way.
"At this point I've been on the plane for five-and-a-half hours, I was extremely uncomfortable and just wanted to be in my chair. The person they sent for me really struggled to get me off the plane, I'm not a heavy guy but this person really struggled."
Daryl, of Stoke-on-Trent, requires special assistance to get him off the plane, and into his wheelchair which is kept in the hold during the flight on May 26.
After landing, passengers were quickly let off the flight while Daryl started his wait for special assistance staff, run by a company called ABM, to get him off the plane and into his chair. Two-hours later, Daryl, the cabin crew, and pilots, were still left waiting.
The pilots and crew tried to take this into their own hands, looking for special assistance staff so they could all leave, and it wasn't until 4.30am that Daryl was back in his chair and into Terminal 3. However, his nightmare journey was not over yet.
A member of special assistance staff accompanied him to border control where no staff were to be found. This led to frantic phone calls by special assistance to find border staff to get Daryl out of the airport.
Approaching 6am, and with no end in sight to this 'ridiculous' ordeal, Daryl took matters into his own hands, and rang the police. Within minutes, a handful of border agents had arrived, and Daryl could be let out of the airport.
He added: "When we finally got to border control there just wasn't anybody there, this really put them into a panic. They were ringing their bosses, but he couldn't get hold of anyone. Nobody seemed to be able to phone border force, this went on for a good hour.
"I was pleading for them to just let me through, even if it had to be a fire exit or something. It became very clear very quickly that airport staff have no line of communication at all with security staff, which I found concerning.
"I felt like I was being held hostage so I had no other option but to call the police. I got through to GMP who have a station at the airport and within 10 minutes five border agents were there.
"Apparently they had no idea I was here, despite special assistance trying to get through to them. They said they only knew because police had contacted them. I basically had no other option but to take it out of the airport's hands."
Daryl wanted to share his story to raise awareness of how wheelchair users have been treated at airports in recent months. BBC News's security correspondent, Frank Gardner, went viral on Twitter in May after sharing his experience of being stuck on a plane in Heathrow while staff got his wheelchair, highlighting the plight many disabled people have been through recently.
"The way they treat disabled people is terrible," Daryl added, "it needs to change". "I travel a lot for work and this is the second time in a year I've had a major issue like this.
"I know a lot of people with the same disability as me and so many have had a similar experience. These experiences make us feel like an obstacle, a complication that airports don't like dealing with. The system feels very understaffed and people aren't given proper training.
"The airport hand us off to a third party and don't take responsibility for looking after us. There needs to be more awareness of this and it needs to change.
"Disabled people have to go through a lot of c***, but this is just ridiculous. It feels like it should be a very simple system but they just don't get it right at all. I honestly think it's a management issue, they don't care about the customer experience.
"When I've travelled to Russia, Spain, Poland, I've had no issues at all, they've been really good. It's a joke how it is here. We are supposed to be world leaders in disability provision but it's rubbish. This system is completely broken."
A Manchester Airport spokesman said: "We are sorry to hear that Mr Tavernor had a disappointing experience and will work with our special assistance provider to understand how a repeat of this might be avoided. We, and others in our industry including airlines, baggage handlers and assistance providers, are experiencing staff shortages at present due to the rapid pace at which travel has recovered from the pandemic. We are working tirelessly to address this as quickly as possible through a major recruitment drive, and to mitigate these challenges as best we can in the meantime.”
An ABM spokesperson said: “We understand the importance of the special assistance service we provide passengers, and delivering that service with efficiency, respect, and care is critical. We regret any time when our service does not meet that standard, and are working with our teams and partners in examining Mr Tavernor’s experience.
“We are currently experiencing higher volumes of passengers who require special assistance than our busiest pre-pandemic peak while the entire industry continues to face resource challenges. We know that we are not alone in managing these issues and understand the inconvenience and emotional impact this all may have on individuals travelling, particularly those requiring additional assistance. We are working in collaboration with all our clients and partners to minimise the impact as we navigate this phase of the pandemic recovery.”
