EASYJET have been accused of ruining a disabled man’s holiday after they broke both his wheelchairs.
Tom Gould, who has cerebral palsy, was appalled to arrive in Greece and discover that his £4,000 off-road wheelchair had been completely broken during the flight.
The 25-year-old’s anger turned to disbelief when he realised that the seatbelt on his £3,600 indoor wheelchair had been broken.
Tom, from Milton Keynes, Bucks, was unable to explore much of the island of Rhodes as planned because of the damage.
He and his family flew to Greece from Luton, Beds, on Saturday with both wheelchairs stowed in the hold.
His mother, Karen, 47, Karen, posted pictures and video of the damage on social media, railing at the airline: “Thanks easyJet for ruining our much anticipated holiday.
“Tom has cerebral palsy. We brought two wheelchairs away with us, one for inside and an all-terrain wheelchair to make the beautiful island of Rhodes more accessible.
“Both wheelchairs were brought back to us on arrival at Rhodes airport broken. The indoor one has a broken seatbelt and the all terrain is basically wrecked!”
Karen also shared a heartbreaking note from Tom, in whichhe described the impact of the damage on him.
He wrote: “Dear easyJet, I am complaining that my all-terrain wheelchair is broken.
“I am moaning because my wheelchair has broken and we have spent lots of money to come on holiday.
“Now I can’t go to the beach and I feel sad that you’ve broken it.”
Video and pictures appear to show that both of the wheels on the all-terrain chair have sheared off, suggesting considerable force was needed to break them.
Karen said today: “I’m not sure how the damage happened. I just know that when we left them at Luton with the special assistance guys they were all completely fine.
“We have come to Rhodes Old Town today in a taxi and it’s everything you would expect of an old town, hilly and uneven in places. Totally why we brought the all terrain chair with us in the first place!”
EasyJet have since apologised for the incident.
An easyJet spokeswoman said:
“We are very sorry for the damage caused to Mr Gould’s wheelchairs during transit. We know how crucial it is for customers to feel confident that items like this will be well cared for when travelling with us and so we are urgently investigating this with our ground handling partners in Luton and Rhodes.
“We have reached out to the Gould family to apologise and offer our assistance and we will be covering the cost of the wheelchair repairs and any additional expenses incurred.”
