Paralympian Patrick Flanagan ‘gutted’ to find wheelchair ‘completely broken’ at Heathrow
Irish athlete Patrick Flanagan did not want to start out his Paralympic journey like this.
“My chair was destroyed,” the swimmer tweeted early Saturday, after finding his wheelchair “completely broken” upon landing at London’s Heathrow Airport on his way to compete at his first Paralympics in Tokyo.
“My chair is my independence and to be left in an over sized airport chair is degrading,” he wrote. Flanagan noted that it takes months for wheelchairs to be fitted and ordered and that this one was customized for his back, but now it’s dented, scraped and its wheels no longer spin.
“The staff at Heathrow were extremely apologetic,” he wrote in a statement. “But unfortunately an apology does very little for me.”
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“We are sorry to hear that your wheelchair was damaged in transit to Heathrow and understand how distressing this would have been,” the airport replied to his tweet. “Once our teams were made aware of what had happened on arrival into Heathrow, they did their best to assist with your onward journey.”
“We will work with the airline and the origin airport as a priority to investigate how the damage occurred and how it can be avoided in the future,” Heathrow added.
“At Heathrow, we are determined to provide a welcoming and accessible airport that ensures all passengers can travel in the way the choose with the dignity and care they expect, and we will be in touch with Mr Flanagan to ensure his future journey through Heathrow is as smooth as possible,” the airport said in a statement to USA TODAY.
In a subsequent tweet, Flanagan, who was born with spina bifida, said he had a backup plan.
“Luckily I’m getting an older chair flown out today,” he said. “But not all wheelchair users are lucky enough to have a spare. The point remains the same, this should never happen!”
Damaged wheelchairs are not just a problem abroad.
An Air Travel Consumer Report from the U.S. Department of Transportation found that more than 700 wheelchairs and scooters had been mishandled by U.S. airlines in the first quarter of this year.
“This is not something that can happen to wheelchair users,” Flanagan said in a statement, urging both airlines and baggage handlers to take more care. “This is unacceptable.”
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He added, “I’m gutted to have to start out my Paralympic journey like this but I just can’t wait to get to Japan, join up with the rest of the team and put on a performance to be proud of.”
Flanagan will swim the 100m backstroke and 400m freestyle.