The family of a double amputee are "appalled" after the eight-year-old boy was left stranded at Gatwick Airport without his wheelchair for hours this morning, after it got stuck on a plane.
Tony Hudgell was left stranded at the busy airport for five hours on Monday and, shockingly, when his chair did turn up it arrived all "twisted and bent", the family have said.
The brave lad and his family were returning from a magical trip to Lapland in the early hours of Monday, but his special wheelchair - that cost £6,500 - was nowhere to be seen after disembarking from their Jet2 plane.
This is despite Tony's adoptive parents, Paula, 54, and Mark, 57, making sure they pre-booked assistance.
His furious parents shared a photo on social media of the forlorn-looking Tony sitting on an unused luggage conveyor belt as he awaited for his wheelchair to be brought off the plane.
Tony’s parents said that after waiting for five hours, his wheelchair emerged - but to their horror, it was “twisted and bent.”
At 3am, an angry Paula posted on Twitter : "Appalled with @jet2tweets @gatwick_airport have been stranded for 3 hrs now with no wheelchair as its still on the plane.
"3am no help. Double amputee no legs as his wheelchair is his legs.
"Trying to get help or assistance and nothing #gatwickairport #disabled #wheelchair."
In a separate tweet, she posted: "“The luggage hadn't come off either. 5 hours later wheelchair appears on conveyor belt bent and chipped. It was supposed to be there to get him off the plane but No it wasn't.”
Following this, people took to social media to describe the treatment of the eight-year-old as “appalling,” sending the family messages of support.
One person wrote: "@MenziesAMS Your appalling leaving an 8 year old double amputee without his wheelchair 4 hours and counting"
While another said: “This is truly awful, bloody ridiculous in fact. Disabled passengers should always be a priority by both airline and airport.”
And a third put: “Shocked and utterly appalled to see this disgraceful situation…..”
And another shared their own experience, writing: "This is absolutely dreadful Paula so sorry that your lovely son and family have suffered this. 1st time we flew with a wheelchair, it happened to my paraplegic husband."
Following the incident, Jet2 replied on Twitter at 5.20am, saying they were "incredibly sorry" and were trying to solve the situation.
They tweeted: "Hi Tony, I am incredibly sorry to hear of your experience, we are currently trying to contact our team at LGW and we will look into fixing this for you. Also, please can you send us a DM with your booking reference number."
But Paula informed the company that the wheelchair had arrived, but was damaged, writing in response: "Sorted now but 5 hours too late as far as a wheelchair user needs ignored.
"Assistance was booked in advance. Should have been sorted and when it did come out it was put on the conveyor belt and got twisted and bent.
"Full complaint on its way. Wheelchair cost us £6,500, so cross."
Gatwick airport also responded to the thread, telling the Paula that they are "really sorry" about the incident, writing: "Dear Paula, we're really sorry to read about what happened. Can you please share a contact for you in a Direct Message so we can investigate what happened."
Following the nightmare, the family - Paula, Mark, Tony, brother Jaden and sisters Jess and Lacey - then faced a treacherous car journey in the snow home to their home in Kings Hill, Kent.
Young Tony is a Pride of Britain award winner and has even been hailed as a hero by Prince William and Kate Middleton.
The eight-year-old has raised more than £1.7million for the Evelina London Children’s Hospital, which saved his life, after having to have both legs amputated at the knee after being subject to appalling physical abuse by his biological parents.
At just six weeks old, Tony suffered numerous limb fractures which developed into sepsis and multiple organ failure following the horrific physical torment by his biological parents Jody Simpson and Anthony Smith.
Tony had a horrific start to life, which led him to undergo 23 operations and eight blood transfusions.
He was fostered by Paula and Mark at just four months old and then adopted him, while Simpson and Smith, then aged 24 and 47 respectively, were each jailed for 10 years in February 2018
Earlier this year the government introduced Tony's Law, which increased the maximum jail terms for those convicted of child cruelty offences.
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab also blocked the expected automatic release of Simpson and Smith in August. They are now due to go before the Parole Board on January 3 and 17, respectively.
A Gatwick Airport spokesperson told The Mirror: "We are aware of this awful situation and apologise for the distress caused to the Hudgell family.
"This is unacceptable and we have picked it up as a matter of urgency with the airline, Jet2, and their ground handler, Menzies. We experienced significant disruption last night and had to close the airport for a two-hour period for safety reasons.”
Meanwhile, a Jet2 spokesperson told The Mirror: "We would like to sincerely apologise to Mr Hudgell and his family for the delay on receiving his wheelchair and for any inconvenience caused as a result. As an award-winning airline that prides itself on industry-leading customer service, we take matters such as this extremely seriously and are working with our ground handling agent to investigate how this happened.
“We can confirm that the delay was due to Gatwick Airport being temporarily closed due to snow, which meant that the baggage handler experienced severe delays offloading luggage. Unfortunately, this included Mr Hudgell’s wheelchair.
“We recognise that this should not be the experience that our customers receive when travelling with us and can confirm that we have been in touch with Ms Hudgell to offer both our sincere apologies and to do everything we can to rectify this situation.”
