Frank Gardner (@FrankRGardner) / X

Frank Gardner

14.7K posts

Frank Gardner

@FrankRGardner

BBC Security Correspondent. Author of Invasion, Blood & Sand, Outbreak, Crisis, Ultimatum, Arabic grad. BTO Pres.

London, United Kingdom

Joined November 2010

Frank Gardner
@FrankRGardner
Sep 30, 2024
Wow. It’s 2024 and I’ve just had to crawl along the floor of this LOT Polish airline to get to the toilet during a flight back from Warsaw as “we don’t have onboard wheelchairs. It’s airline policy”. If you’re disabled and you can’t walk this is just discriminatory.
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Frank Gardner
@FrankRGardner
May 15, 2022
It’s happened again. Stuck on an empty plane at Heathrow airport long after everyone else is off - ‘no staff to get my wheelchair off the plane’. I am SO disappointed with @HeathrowAirport as disabled passengers are once again apparently the lowest priority.
Frank Gardner
@FrankRGardner
Sep 30, 2024
Replying to @FrankRGardner
In fairness to the cabin crew, they were as helpful and apologetic as they could be. Not their fault, it’s the airline. Won’t be flying LOT again until they join the 21st century.
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Frank Gardner
@FrankRGardner
Jan 5, 2018
Brilliant. Love this. As spotted by a friend going thru Abu Dhabi airport:
Frank Gardner
@FrankRGardner
Jul 1, 2022
OK so I’m going to wade into this issue one more time (of passengers like me left waiting on empty planes). I fully support the suggestion that only penalties and fines will change this. Repeated apologies for poor service just don’t cut it.
Frank Gardner
@FrankRGardner
Oct 2, 2024
Crikey. I did not expect this: 133k likes and 7 million views. Thank you everyone for your kind words on this story. Lets hope it’s enough to make LOT Polish Airlines allow disabled passengers to reach the toilet on their European flights. It’s not a huge ask! @LOTAirlinesUS
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Frank Gardner
@FrankRGardner
May 20, 2022
Slightly embarrassed by all the attention this Heathrow stranded-on-a-plane thing has got but hey, if we don’t make a fuss I suspect nothing will change.
Frank Gardner
@FrankRGardner
Feb 6, 2023
Freedom. Years after being shot and partly paralysed in the legs, I still get to ski! This is how:
00:00
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Frank Gardner
@FrankRGardner
Mar 24, 2018
I am so utterly sick of @HeathrowAirport ground staff 'losing' my wheelchair. Over 70 mins after landing back from Ethiopia I'm still stuck on an empty plane while they try to find it Just when is UK's premier airport going to stop treating disabled passengers this way?
Frank Gardner
@FrankRGardner
Jun 6, 2019
June 6 is a bittersweet day for me. It’s my ‘Alive Day’, surviving multiple gunshot wounds in Riyadh 15 yrs ago but also remembering my wonderful cameraman Simon Cumbers who died in that attack.
Frank Gardner
@FrankRGardner
Jul 2, 2022
Passed through Dubai and Bangkok airports in last 24 hours and guess what, the transfers off the plane were absolutely faultless, as they always are there. Maybe they could give UK airports some guidance?
Frank Gardner
@FrankRGardner
Oct 1, 2024
So, LOT, the Polish airline that denies disabled passengers the chance to go to the toilet on their Euro flights, has sent an apology letter to BBC Breakfast, not to me. But this is not a 1-off, they did the same thing in May, I just didnt eat or drink before flying with them.
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Frank Gardner
@FrankRGardner
Jun 30, 2022
Off the plane now - only a 20 minute delay which is mild - but ground handlers said ‘nobody told us there was a disabled passenger onboard’. Airline, Iberia, insist they did. All in all, so tedious and boring!
Frank Gardner
@FrankRGardner
Mar 28, 2019
Heavens. We’ve just had an email at work from someone in...Afghanistan - saying ‘hope all is ok there in UK with Brexit, wishing u luck’.!