AN ELDERLY woman was “dumped” in a wheelchair by airport staff for three hours, without any care or company until a good samaritan traveller stepped in.
The elderly woman was left by her gate at 7pm on Sunday night by staff at Edinburgh Airport – but a delay saw her abandoned until 10pm.
She was only helped when a concerned onlooker – Trish Mullen – took it upon herself to keep her company.
And she claims staff completely “blanked” the elderly lady when she presented her passport, acting “bloody rude” because they were having to work late due to the delay.
Ms Mullen posted an image of the lady and a harshly worded statement to the staff of EasyJet – with whom the woman was flying – on the night the incident occurred.
She wrote: “Absolute shame on you EasyJet. A vulnerable woman confined to a wheelchair ‘dumped’ by your staff at Gate 1A in Edinburgh at 6.45pm tonight for a flight departing at 9.55pm!
“Not a soul anywhere in this area until I arrived at the gate at 9pm. I asked her if she was ok when she said to me, “Thank goodness someone else is here”, and she was visibly upset.
“When staff arrived I asked why this had happened and the young man was extremely rude.
“I wheeled her to the new gate and sat her right next to check in. I was further disappointed when staff there too blatantly ignored her holding up her passport.
“She was jostled as the crowds surrounded her on boarding. It’s outrageous and you should be so, so ashamed.
“It was bloody shameful and staff were so bloody rude because they’re having to work late due to flight delay. Everyone of them looked like they’re chewing a wasp.”
Describing her reaction, she added: “I just lost it big time.”
Online her act of kindness has been commended.
Annette Berry said: “Well done Trish. Raise absolute hell with them – it’s no less than they deserve. Poor lady – she might be desperate for a cuppa of a comfort stop, it’s just beyond the pale.”
Jan McLaren added: “That’s awful. How can people be so heartless? So glad she has you for company now.”
Now Easyjet have said they are launching an investigation into the behaviour of their staff.
A spokeswoman for EasyJet said they are “very concerned” with the image.
She added that they were “urgently taking this up with Edinburgh Airport and their special assistance provider Omni-serv.
“This is clearly not the customer service and care we expect to be provided to our passengers.
“As such we have immediately launched an investigation with Omni-serv to establish what happened and ensure it cannot happen again.”
A spokesman for Edinburgh Airport said: “This is unacceptable; the security and wellbeing of all of our passengers is our number one priority and we are assisting EasyJet and Omniserv in their investigation to get to the bottom of this to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
