A teenager wheelchair user was forced to crawl up a flight of plane stairs after British Airways lost his specialist chair and his spare.
Tomas Woods, a wheelchair motocross (WCMX) world champion from Preston, described the experience on the £1,500 flight as "frustrating" and "degrading".
The incident occurred when the 15-year-old was returning from California where he had been training with his coach, Ben Adshead. Due to a broken jet bridge, Tomas was made to "bum shuffle" up the internal steps leading to the upper floor of the plane.
Tomas suffers from hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a condition caused by faults in certain genes that weaken connective tissue, resulting in chronic pain, joint dislocation, muscle weakness and gastroenterology issues.
The ordeal took place on a British Airways flight from Dallas to Heathrow on April 1, 2024. After a two-hour wait onboard, Tomas was informed that his £5,000 specialist wheelchair used for boarding was lost and they also could not locate his spare wheelchair in the hold.
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Tomas has made a name for himself as a fearless wheelchair motocross competitor (PA)
He described the experience as "frustrating" and "degrading" (PA)He said he was then forced to use an airport wheelchair, which he could not push himself, received little help when going to the toilet between flights and was not updated about his chairs' whereabouts. Once he returned home, he voiced his complaints about the flights and threatened to take his story to the media. It was then that he said the complaints team "as if by magic" located his specialist wheelchair and spare wheelchair and sent them back to him.
Tomas has commended some of the staff members who assisted him during the ordeal, including a cabin crew member who suggested he should be awarded 10,000 Avios flight points. However, he has yet to receive these points, and British Airways has not responded to his complaint.
He has not received any compensation or a response from the airline until a reporter contacted British Airways, which then apologised for the "unacceptable experience".
Speaking to PA Real Life, Tomas recounted: "When we were getting on, they were like, 'Are you sitting upstairs? Well, the jet bridge is broken. We're going to have to change your seats, you're going to have to wait here. You might miss your flight'.
"We didn't have any other option and didn't want to miss our flight, so we got on board, and we got the assistance guys to carry the wheelchair to the hold. And then I had to bum shuffle up and get in an aisle chair so I could go down to the economy cabin.
"It was pre-board so there was only us and the cabin crew, but it wasn't brilliant, and obviously it's a bit degrading, I suppose. After you spent £1,500 on a flight, the last thing you want to do is try to climb up a set of stairs I was very frustrated."
Tomas, who has been using a wheelchair full-time since 2019 due to "daily pain" that prevents him from attending school full-time and requires him to wear braces for his ankles and wrists, has made a name for himself in the world of WCMX. After taking up the sport just a year after he began using the wheelchair, Tomas soared to victory at the World WCMX Championships in Coachella Valley, California, in 2023.
Describing the adrenaline-fueled sport, Tomas said: "It's essentially BMX in a wheelchair. If you think of any trick in skateboarding or BMX, I do that but in a wheelchair."
Following his championship win, Tomas ramped up his training efforts, travelling to Woodward West in Stallion Springs, California, the largest action sports training facility in the world, with his coach from March 12 to April 1 this year.
However, their journey back home was far from smooth. When it was time to board their British Airways flight from Dallas to Heathrow, Tomas faced an unexpected hurdle as the jet bridge was out of order, forcing him to "bum shuffle" up the plane's internal stairs.
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But there was a silver lining mid-flight when Tomas and his coach were upgraded to business class, where they both managed to sleep through the entire journey comfortably.
However, upon landing at Heathrow, Tomas and his coach were astounded to find out that no crew had been arranged to assist them. Moreover, they were shocked when informed of the absence of his specialist and spare wheelchairs from the hold.
After a further half-hour wait, it was revealed that there may have been a mix-up with Tomas's chairs - apparently, they'd ended up in the wrong area of the airport, potentially lost. One staff member tried to check on arrivals, leaving Tomas stranded in the aircraft for a drawn-out two hours.
Following their final disembarking from the aircraft, the pair sat inactive in pre-customs for an additional 40 minutes as they were denied entry without the presence of a BA customer service representative.
Upon finally passing through and reaching the gate for their onward flight, another two hours went by as they waited at the runway's end. This time, the blame was laid on British Airways who purportedly miscalculated the passenger numbers onboard that day.
A spokesperson from British Airways stated: "We're looking into this as a matter of urgency but it's very clear from our initial investigation that we got this wrong. We're sorry to our customer for the unacceptable experience and don't underestimate the impact it will have had on him."
"We successfully carry hundreds of thousands of customers who require additional assistance each year and we work hard to provide help and support them throughout their whole journey. It's extremely disheartening when things go wrong but we're committed to learning from these incidents so we can deliver the best service possible in the future."
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