A MAN with cerebral palsy was left furious after he was thrown off a flight because his "wheelchair was too heavy".

       Brandon Aughton, 24, was due to fly to Malaga from East Midlands Airport on October 11 with his carer Orla Hennessey.

       2

       Brandon was unable to take his flight on October 11 as his chair was 'too heavy' 2

       The 24-year-old Brandon with his carer Orla

       "I've flown twice like that before and never had any issues, I was angry," Brandon told Nottinghamshire Live.

       At the airport, Brandon left his chair with Swissport - Ryanair's ground services and air cargo handling company.

       But as Brandon and Orla boarded the plane, Swissport declared the chair too heavy to lift off the conveyor belt and into the hold.

       When a solution could not be found, the pilot made the decision that Brandon could not fly.

       "Brandon got really upset at one point - it felt like no-one wanted to help us," Orla said.

       "It was Swissport's responsibility to put the wheelchair on the plane and tell the ground crew that it needs to go on the plane but they didn't do it and there wasn't any equipment to lift it as it's a 270kg chair.

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       "There were four of them there saying they could not lift it because of health and safety and they unceremoniously booted us off the flight even though we had the letter from Ryanair to say the chair was not too heavy and it could be taken."

       The carer went on to say that Ryanair had told them that the weight of the chair had been fine but that a woman from Swissport claimed the wrong information was provided.

       "When we were going through customs, I was told I had a dangerous item in my bag, but it was an allen key to take apart Brandon's chair, so I queried this and was told I would be let through this time, but don't let it happen again," Orla recalled.

       It was late the next day, on October 12, when Orla and Brandon were able to travel to Malaga.

       "I missed out on 48 hours of my holiday," Brandon said.

       'DISTRESSING'

       The 24-year-old had been looking forward to his first holiday since shielding for nearly two years.

       "Brandon still wanted to go on holiday and a disability holiday agency managed to get flights for us the next day but we had to take a manual wheelchair - which is completely unacceptable for Brandon's needs," Orla said.

       "He didn't have his mobility and it's basically like taking someone's legs away from them - it was quite distressing.

       "My main purpose was to get Brandon on holiday and get him through and I was unforgiving towards some people at times, but we wouldn't have got anywhere quickly otherwise."

       A spokesperson for Swissport told Nottinghamshire Live: "We are saddened to hear the customer’s claims about an incident at East Midlands Airport.

       "We take our responsibilities towards disabled passengers extremely seriously and understand how important it is that travel for all passengers runs smoothly."

       A spokesperson for Ryanair told Nottinghamshire Live: "We liaised with this customer directly and this has been resolved."

       Swissport and Ryanair have been contacted by The Sun Online for comment.

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