Airport staff 'broke disabled Ryanair passengers wheelchair'

When Lisa Burton's wheelchair was returned she noticed it had been badly damaged by the staff. Photo / Facebook

A disabled passenger claims she was left angry and humiliated after airport staff returned her wheelchair in four pieces with broken parts hidden from her.

Nursing student Lisa Burton, 30, from Doncaster, was flying Ryanair from Barcelona to Liverpool John Lennon airport when staff allegedly damaged her wheelchair while loading it on to aeroplane.

Miss Burton, who suffers from a condition called arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC), which affects her ability to walk, appeared to film staff in Barcelona trying to load her wheelchair on to the plane recklessly, reports Daily Mail.

Then, when she was finally reunited with her wheelchair in Liverpool she quickly realised it had been damaged and discovered two suspension springs broken off and wrapped in a towel concealed in the chair's storage space.

Because the wheelchair no longer had suspension, it scraped across the floor whenever she tried to use it - causing further damage to its essential undercarriage.

A Liverpool John Lennon Airport spokesman told MailOnline they are investigating the incident and said the damage to the wheelchair was unlikely to have been caused at their end, while Barcelona airport has been approached for comment.

Lisa discovered two suspension springs broken off and wrapped in a towel concealed in the chair's storage space. Photo / Facebook

Miss Burton hit out at airport staff in Barcelona and Liverpool, bemoaning their lack of care, explaining: "It's not just towels and knickers in a suitcase - this is people's lives."

Adding that after she had returned to Liverpool she faced a further ordeal lugging her broken wheelchair and four suitcases through the airport with minimal help from staff.

A picture above shows how she had to load her damaged wheelchair onto a trolley and push it through the airport lobby.

She explained: 'The wheelchair is my life line, without it I can't even get to the bathroom. The staff don't even think about the impact it has - without it I'm stuck.

"With my wheelchair broken I was very nearly unable to attend my final four days on placement which meant I could have lost my offer of a job because of it."

She added: "I spent three years in university to finally get this placement and have had to complete every day on it to have a chance of securing a job after, the staff have no idea how much not having my wheelchair has effected my prospects of having a job."

Adding insult to injury, Miss Burton revealed that after staff had damaged her wheelchair, she said they demanded to know how she planned to remove the chair.

"I was furious," she said. "They broke it and expected me to move it off the runway."

After, she was given a manual wheelchair and left with her partner and four suitcases to make her way through the airport unassisted.

She said airports in London she travelled with before tend to have machines to remove the wheelchair, whereas Liverpool seemed ill-equipped.