Paralympic swimmer Patrick Flanagan ‘gutted’ after wheelchair was ‘damaged’ on the best way to Tokyo
In his tweet on Saturday explaining the state of affairs, Flanagan included photos which appeared to indicate the damaged wheels.
“Finally the wheels have been broken a lot that they now not spin, together with quite a lot of different dents and scrapes,” he wrote.
He defined that the workers at Heathrow had been “extraordinarily apologetic.” The official Heathrow account replied to Flanagan’s tweet saying: “We’re sorry to listen to that your wheelchair was broken in transit to Heathrow and perceive how distressing this may have been. As soon as our groups had been made conscious of what had occurred on arrival into Heathrow, they did their finest to help together with your onward journey.”
“We are going to work with the airline and the origin airport as a precedence to research how the harm occurred and the way it may be averted sooner or later,” it continued. “Please do get in contact if we may be of any help with any future journey by Heathrow.”
“I used to be given an over sized airport wheelchair, crammed out a declare kind and despatched on my means. I can barely push myself on this new chair and easy duties like getting round my resort room are extraordinarily robust. And now I’ve to fly to Tokyo.
“This isn’t one thing that may occur to wheelchair makes use of. It is unacceptable. Each airways and baggage handlers have to pay extra consideration to chairs. My chair is my independence and takes months to be fitted and ordered. Mine is particularly sized to assist my again, is light-weight so I can elevate it into the automobile and is extraordinarily sturdy. It will not be broken simply.
Flanagan will swim within the S6 100m backstroke and 400m freestyle for Crew Eire.
