Latest news with #FrankGardner
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
Disabled BBC journalist is forced to wait more than 90 minutes to disembark plane after it landed at Heathrow Airport
Disabled BBC journalist Frank Gardner accused Heathrow Airport of discrimination today after waiting more than 90 minutes to be taken off on a plane after it landed. The BBC News security correspondent has been in a wheelchair since 2004 when he was paralysed after being shot six times by Al Qaeda gunmen in Saudi Arabia. The 63-year-old landed from Singapore on a British Airways plane at Heathrow's Terminal Five at 6.45am this morning following a flight lasting more than 13 hours. But as other passengers walked down the stairs of the Boeing 777 to waiting buses to take them to the terminal building, Mr Gardner was kept waiting for assistance. Ground staff from Heathrow contractor Wilson James normally meet planes arriving at remote stands to help disabled passengers disembark on a medical lift. Most arriving planes are linked to the terminal with airbridges, so a lift is not required. But Mr Gardner was kept waiting for one hour and 35 minutes after the last passenger left - with the captain insisting he would wait on board the plane until he was off. He posted a photo of the plane's open doors on X, saying: 'Annoyed to find that Heathrow Airport is slipping back into its old bad habits, leaving disabled passengers still waiting for a high-lift to turn up so we can get off the plane, long after all others have disembarked. Other airports can manage. C'mon Heathrow, get a grip!' Gardner added 20 minutes later: 'Just to be clear, this is not the airline's fault. BA crew have been brilliant, Captain refusing to leave the plane til I'm off. 'But it's now approaching an hour we're waiting for the high lift to turn up. it's so discriminatory by Heathrow Airport twds disabled passengers.' Heathrow then responded, saying: 'Good morning Frank. We are sorry to hear this, we can confirm that passengers who requested the high lift are asked to wait for others passengers to disembark first. If you would like us to look into your experience further, please kindly DM us.' But Gardner replied: 'You are missing the point. The high lift hasn't turned up.' Speaking later to MailOnline, Gardner said: 'It certainly wasn't great that after a 13 to 14 hour overnight flight from Singapore - which was a work trip - I then had to wait a further 90 minutes to disembark because the airport couldn't find a high lift truck to get me off the plane with my wheelchair. 'I watched the captain phone the people responsible repeatedly and then say 'no one's answering'. To be fair, this doesn't happen every time, and the ground handling staff are always helpful and courteous, but in 2025 it shouldn't be happening at all. 'For every person like me who goes public when this happens how many others are putting up with it in silence? 'This comes down to a need for better allocation of resources and better communication between the airport and the ground handlers. I very rarely encounter these problems in other airports in the world.' In 2018, Mr Gardner criticised Heathrow after being kept on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa for nearly two hours because staff said they had lost his wheelchair A Heathrow spokesperson told MailOnline: 'We are extremely sorry for the delay Mr Gardner experienced. This was due to the team responding to a medical emergency, which reduced the number of vehicles available but we are very sorry for the inconvenience caused. 'As a gesture of goodwill, we have offered to cover the cost of the additional waiting time for his car. We continue to work hard to ensure all passengers enjoy a smooth and seamless experience when travelling through Heathrow.' MailOnline has contacted Wilson James for comment. Last October, Mr Gardner criticised LOT Polish Airlines after he was forced to 'crawl on the floor' to reach a plane toilet because of a lack of onboard wheelchairs. He said at the time that it was 'degrading' and 'physically deeply uncomfortable', adding that it was 'humiliating' to have to 'shuffle along the floor' in his suit on the flight from Warsaw to London. LOT responded by saying it was 'deeply sorry' for Mr Gardner's 'distressing experience', adding that it was 'testing solutions' to equip short-haul aircraft with onboard wheelchairs. And in 2018, Mr Gardner criticised Heathrow after being kept on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa for nearly two hours because staff said they had lost his wheelchair. He later met the airport's then-chief executive John Holland-Kaye to discuss improvements.
The Independent
3 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Wheelchair user left on a plane for almost two hours after landing
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, who uses a wheelchair, was left waiting for more than 90 minutes for assistance after all other passengers had disembarked a 13-hour flight from Singapore to Heathrow. Gardner criticised Heathrow Airport for its poor service towards disabled passengers, questioning why they should receive worse treatment than others, and noted similar incidents have occurred in the past. According to Gardner, a Wilson James operations manager informed him that two of the five medical lifts had gone out of service overnight, contributing to the delay. A Heathrow spokesperson apologised for the delay, citing a medical emergency that reduced available vehicles, and offered to cover the cost of Gardner's additional waiting time for his car as a gesture of goodwill. Gardner praised the British Airways crew for their support, with the captain refusing to leave the plane while Gardner was still on board.
The Independent
3 days ago
- General
- The Independent
‘Get a grip!': Disabled BBC correspondent slams Heathrow after long wait to disembark plane
At the end of a flight of over 13 hours from Singapore to London Heathrow, the BBC's Frank Gardner was kept waiting for over an hour and a half for assistance after all the other passengers had left the aircraft. The security correspondent has used a wheelchair since he was shot six times in an Al Qaeda gun attack in Saudi Arabia in 2004. The British Airways Boeing 777 arrived from Singapore at 6.45am, and parked at a remote stand at Heathrow (LHR) Terminal 5. Other passengers walked down the stairs to waiting buses. Normally ground staff working for Wilson James, a contractor used by Heathrow airport, meet aircraft at remote stands to help disabled passengers leave the aircraft using a medical lift. But they were nowhere to be seen. Mr Gardner waited a further one hour and 35 minutes after the last passenger left. The BBC journalist told The Independent: 'Why should disabled passengers have so much worse service than everybody else?' Mr Gardner posted on X (formerly Twitter): 'Annoyed to find that @HeathrowAirport is slipping back into its old bad habits, leaving disabled passengers still waiting for a high-lift to turn up so we can get off the plane, long after all others have disembarked. 'Other airports can manage. C'mon Heathrow, get a grip!' The correspondent was full of praise for the British Airways crew on board, who had just worked for 14 hours. He said: 'The captain was brilliant, saying, 'I would never leave the plane with another passenger on board – I'm the captain of the ship.' 'The crew were so helpful and sympathetic, and they could not have been nicer.' Mr Gardner said that after help finally arrived, he was told by a Wilson James operations manager that two of the five medical lifts had gone out of service overnight. In 2018, the correspondent was kept waiting at Heathrow for 100 minutes to disembark from an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa. The-then chief executive, John Holland-Kaye, later met Mr Gardner to discuss improvements. 'He said, 'I'll give you an hour of my time to learn what we need to do better',' Mr Gardner said. The Independent has asked Heathrow airport and Wilson James, the contractor, to comment.
Daily Mail
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Which writer does Jeremy Vine think has been unfairly cancelled?
What book... ...are you reading now? I'm into Frank Gardner. It's a little strange, because Frank is a BBC colleague I've known for years. I vividly remember in 2004 being in a devastated huddle with other Newsnight colleagues when we heard he had been shot and left for dead in Riyadh (Frank survived but his cameraman, a lovely guy called Simon Cumbers, died). Frank's books are as gripping as anything. I started with the first, Crisis, and am now on the latest, Invasion. International espionage set in the near future. And on Audible, read by my friend himself! ...would you take to a desert island? I would attempt, for the second time, The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. With six volumes, 1.5 million words and eight thousand footnotes (some of them jokes in Latin!) it defeated my father, who died before finishing it, and it defeated me at the first attempt, after I made it my vainglorious mission to honour my dear dad's efforts! A desert island would be the place to try again. I remember Gibbon saying most Caesars died violently, on average after 13 years – such a great Roman Empire stat. ...first gave you the reading bug? Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I remember him shooting into the sky in the glass elevator on the final page so well; I reckon I was nine years old when I read it. I couldn't imagine how he could end the book on the next page and then he did. I find the rewriting and near-cancellation of Roald Dahl 35 years after he died a silent abomination. Okay, he was not a very nice person but when was that ever the test of a great writer? ...left you cold? No writer likes to answer this question, but I regularly read prizewinning books (e.g. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida) and don't quite get them. Probably the most drastic example of a classic that I felt guilty about not enjoying was Dune by Frank Herbert. It was just so dense and unbelievable, and the print was tiny, and I got to the end and realised I hadn't really touched the surface. This led me to the realisation that I'm not very good with science fiction. I find the appearance of any spaceship destroys it for me. Sorry, sci-fi fans.
