Young disabled woman left 'traumatised' after easyJet refuses her onboard with mobility scooter

A young disabled woman from Lisburn says she feels discriminated against after easyJet refused to let her fly with her mobility scooter.

Katie Shanks had already flown with the scooter on the same airline four days previous from Belfast to Gatwick.

But upon her return flight, the 23-year-old was stopped from boarding at the plane doors.

Her mother, Lynn, told UTV: "I was really annoyed to the point that I think I just went, 'this isn't really happening', you know?

"My daughter who really needs access to her mobility scooter doesn't have anything like that at home now."

According to easyJet Assisted Travel said there was a problem with the voltage of the scooter's battery.

Katie and her mother asked if they could take it off but the answer was no.

They were both told the scooter itself was also not allowed on and that they could no longer fly.

Katie was upset but also confused; she had contacted easyJet one year prior when she was researching scooters to buy that could travel on planes.

She said she was told it would be fine and even filled out the necessary paperwork and called the airline in the week leading to her London trip to double-check everything was ok.

But at the plane doors in Gatwick, they faced a different reality.

"Mum had asked what would happen if we didn't have someone to pick it up and they said it would be disposed of," said Katie.

"The stress of that on top of the stress of my pain took a lot out of me and I'm still recovering.

"You know, usually if I do something intense, it would take five days to recover, so I don't know how long this is going to take... hopefully not too long, but I'm in immense pain from what I would usually be in."

Both Katie and her mum said the staff on the ground were very apologetic and that even the plane's captain came out to try and resolve the problem.

Katie is also autistic and says she has been left traumatised by the ordeal.

Her mobility scooter gives her freedom and independence, but it is now with her sister in England. Without it, she hasn't been able to leave her home.

"What we would ask is that either we have a quick return of the scooter by shipping it over or compensation for the price of the scooter and for the trauma that we've been through, especially Katie," said Lynn.

UTV contacted easyJet for a response.

A spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we were, unfortunately, unable to carry Ms Shanks’ mobility scooter onboard their flight from London Gatwick to Belfast on 2 July in line with our policy that mobility aids containing batteries with a voltage exceeding 300 watts will not be allowed onboard and this is advised in our terms and conditions.

"We are aware that the scooter was boarded in Belfast and so we are looking into this with our ground handling team at the airport and we are very sorry for the confusion this will have caused.

“Whilst our teams acted correctly in line with policy and fully understand the frustration this will have caused and we did all possible to assist them in the circumstances, transferring them for free onto a flight the following day and providing them with hotel accommodation and meals at Gatwick and have offered to reimburse them for their parking expenses.”

easyJet did not state whether they would return Katie's mobility scooter.

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