A wheelchair basketball player's chair was lost during a flight from Amsterdam to England days before she was due to compete at the Commonwealth Games
Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images
- A Commonwealth Games athlete's wheelchair was lost as she was traveling from Amsterdam to the UK to compete.
- Her teammate reported it being lost on Monday morning, and said nine hours later that it was found.
- Flybe, the airline the team used, said the wheelchair would arrive to the UK on Tuesday.
A wheelchair basketball player's chair was lost on a flight days before she was due to compete in the Commonwealth Games.
The team had flown from Amsterdam's Schipol airport to England's East Midlands airport on Monday, when the wheelchair was lost.
Robyn Love, a Scottish wheelchair basketball player, tweeted on Monday morning that her teammate's chair had been lost, and said just over nine hours later that it had been located.
She said her teammate, whom she did not name in the tweet, "CAN'T COMPETE without it." The BBC identified the athlete as Jess Whyte. A spokesperson for Team Scotland confirmed her identify to Insider.
The UK budget airline Flybe, which the team flew with, told Insider in a Tuesday statement that the wheelchair was later found by baggage-handling crew, and that both the airline and Schipol airport apologized for the loss. It did not say who was responsible for losing the wheelchair.
Flybe said the wheelchair would arrive in England's Birmingham airport on Tuesday afternoon — the day after it was lost — on another flight from Amsterdam.
The BBC reported that the wheelchair is worth £7,000, with Whyte telling the broadcaster of the chair: "It was made for me, I've trained with it since March, using anything else would be like playing in high heels."
Team Scotland's first wheelchair basketball game is scheduled for July 29.
Flybe said in its statement to Insider: "We are pleased to confirm that the passenger's wheelchair will be arriving on a flight to Birmingham Airport later this afternoon (26th July) after it was located by Swissport, the baggage handling company that assists Amsterdam Airport Schiphol with accepting and transferring wheelchairs and other important cargo to Flybe and other airlines.
"The passenger has been informed, and we are all working to ensure that the wheelchair is delivered quickly and safely. We and Amsterdam Airport would like to apologise to the passenger for the delay and any inconvenience caused."
A spokeswoman for Team Scotland told Insider in a Tuesday statement: "We are really pleased that Jess' wheelchair has been found. Incidents like this can be very stressful for an athlete in the lead up to a major competition, and but this positive outcome means Jess can now focus completely on her final preparations."
A spokesman for East Midlands Airport told Insider on Monday that the airport was helping in the search for the wheelchair, though it was not sure that the wheelchair had arrived there. The airport confirmed to Insider on Tuesday that the wheelchair had been found.
The chaos roiling the travel industry in the US and Europe has resulted in an unusually large amount of lost luggage at airports. Disabled passengers have also found themselves disproportionally affected, with many reporting having to wait for long periods of time to get off planes after everyone else had disembarked.
Contributer : Business Insider https://ift.tt/aKCu9ok
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Wednesday, July 27, 2022
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