I ended the first part of this blog by sharing my complaint email and noting that I had received a prompt follow-up the next day from George (not his real name), who genuinely seemed to want to help. I didn’t share his email last time, so let’s start there. 

Please note that excepting the names and anything in bold, which I’ve added for clarity. all emails were as received, typos and all. 

George’s initial email read:

Good morning Mr Logue, First of all, please accept my apology that your chair has arrived in Glasgow in a condition that makes it difficult for you to use. This is not acceptable, and we will investigate the incident with the team that was involved in the servicing of the flight and review CCTV to see if we can view the offloading of luggage. Is it possible for you to contact me on 07XXXXXXXXX so I can speak to you in person, I will then follow up via email. Brgds George

Ignoring for the time being that he referenced my “chair” being “in a condition that makes it difficult” to use when my entire complaint was about my TriRide being broken, I was impressed that I heard from him so quickly. 

Adding to this George was on leave, he’d just forgotten to turn off his out-of-office and felt a reply was needed quickly to my complaint – points for that.

We discussed the severity of the event, what we’d witnessed, the financial and personal implications it would have and the next steps, which consisted of passing the matter to Kyle (not his real name), who’d pick up the issue in his place. A condition of my accepting the earlier phone call was that I was to have an emailed summary and next steps.

Good morning Joe, As per our conversation earlier:- I have copied in Kyle who take over the investigation while I am on annual leave, I expect he will be in touch early next week. Colin, who is also in copy, is our H&S manager so will also be heavily involved in the investigation. Kyle is the head of airside so he will have a recorded meeting with the team that serviced the flight that you arrived on. As part of any airside investigation, we will review the detail that you have sent and speak to anyone who could have witnessed what has happened (Jet2 staff or other third parties) so we get a comprehensive picture of the incident. I have instructed the team to send an email with where we are as I did not want to share your mobile number without your permission. If you are happy to receive a call and then an emailed update, then please feel free to reply to this email with permission and the team will be in touch. Once again, I can only apologies that your chair was damaged and that I am passing it on to someone else for the time being. Brgds George

Again, he referenced my chair, not my TriRide but at least he was trying. However, it didn’t help my confidence. I replied civilly because snapping and dismantling the email wouldn’t have been helpful.

Thanks George, I consent to my number being shared, on the condition that I receive a written recap after each call via email. My number is 07XXXXXXXXX Joe.

This was all on Friday.

On Monday, I received a call from Colin. As with George, my condition of recap and follow-up email was agreed upon:

Good Afternoon Joe, First and foremost, on behalf of Menzies aviation I would like to personally apologise for the emotional stress and damage caused by last weeks events. I am sure George would have echoed this sentiment when you spoke last week. Since then, CCTV footage has been requested and all investigation will be conducted in line with our internal fair and just policy. I have invested interest into this incident on a personal level as the sole carer of a disabled parent, so I completely appreciate and resonate with all points you raised in this email. I can assure you this is being treated as a high priority. This incident is not being treated as “just another customer complaint” and it will receive the in-depth investigation it deserves. Currently, I am limited with how much I can comment on the incident until I have reviewed the CCTV but what I can confirm is that in light of the incident all team members involved have produced an incident summary report and will subject to internal investigation. Jet 2 have also raised the event which will require formal investigation. As an organisation, we pride ourselves in our value of “Customer focus” and on employment all staff must undergo in depth training on dignity and respect. We work to a mantra of “say something, see something” encouraging all staff to feel empowered to speak up when they see something that is a deviation from normal process, and I would like to assure you the handling of PRM (Person with Reduced Mobility) customers mobility devices is no exception. Furthermore, all staff must complete regular equality, diversity and inclusion training to ensure both customers and colleagues are treated equally be it in a working environment peer-to-peer or handling an EMD. I would like to think with this framework in place and all team members trained to this standard there would be no deliberate actions take and that any damages occurring would have come as a result of a careless act or poor decision making. However, within our internal investigation will establish culpability and the root cause of the incident – from which we will act accordingly. I have reviewed the incident statements of all team members involved and all agree that no deliberate actions were taken to damage your device, but this will however be confirmed by CCTV. I would like to think that no team member would ever deliberately damage any customers belongings be it a piece of luggage or an essential EMD (Electric Mobility Device) device that provides you with the before mentioned freedoms. If, however, this was deemed to be the case it would again be treated with the highest level of severity and proceeded through our internal disciplinary proceedings should it be required. In the interim, I thank you for your patience and I will be in contact with further information from the incident. Once again on behalf of Menzies Aviation I would like to express my sincere apologies. Best Regards, Colin

I promptly replied.

Hi Colin, Thank you for the update, and for taking this matter seriously. I understand there’s a process to follow and I respect this. I appreciate there’s a degree of confidentiality at play but may I ask for a little more context on the statements from the staff in view of the comment “no deliberate actions were taken to damage your device”? Is this meant to infer that it was accidentally damaged by their own accounts? I’ve no intention of making the email chain a series of arguments, as it’s counterproductive but I’d appreciate some clarity there. Thanks. Joe.

My logic in this response was to see if any accountability had been shown for the deliberate damage. It wasn’t an accident, but even the suggestion that it was with an apology would have been something, it would have shown a degree of human decency. I shouldn’t have expected that from someone I witnessed drop my device on purpose, but I do like to think most people are inherently good. 

I didn’t hear anything for 3 more days, so I sent another email:

Hi all, I was just wondering if we had any update, or indeed a response to my last email? Thanks, Joe.

Colin replied to me a few hours later:

Good afternoon Joe, Apologies for the delayed response, I was holding off to have an update on the CCTV but no response yet – I will follow this up and re-emphasise its urgency. My previous comments make reference to the discussion with the lead agent from the flight who explained he seen no actions taken that would result in damage to an EMD and he was not aware of any damage until it was brought to his attention. I appreciate this is an incredibly difficult time for you and please be assured I will call with a comprehensive update when the CCTV has been released if of value, also happy to send you the requested summary of the call. Best regards, Colin

That didn’t sound good. It was clear that there would be no accountability offered, no ownership of the mishandling, all I could hope for was CCTV to prove the damage and the reaction to it. 

Weirdly, I cared less about the damage being captured and more about the shared shrug, where two people witnessed the issue and reacted with a silent “ah well”, rather than concern or compassion. That was the kicker, not the damage but the lack of empathy.

There’s a misconception that disabled people get everything handed to them. That’s a lie. Yes, many of us in the UK receive Personal Independence Payment, a government benefit that helps contribute to the extra costs of living with a disability, which according to Scope equates to an average of £975 a month! 

I use my PIP for a car I can use to get to work, medical appointments, and live my life but that car comes with on average a £3000 down payment. Looking at WAVs, you can be anywhere from £13,000 to £75,000 if you want something top-of-the-line!

But yeah, we get everything for free.

I can only assume the lack of concern was down to a belief that I’d just have been given another TriRide by the NHS but they don’t come on the NHS, I had to privately fund it with the help of many generous people, so breaking it wasn’t just an insult to me but a middle finger to everyone who wanted to support me and increase my quality of life.

I later received a call from Colin, who confirmed my worst fears. He told me that the CCTV saw nothing and that without this evidence, it was my word against theirs and there was no way to objectively confirm the truth of the matter – despite my 3 witnesses. If we want to split hairs, there was also a 4th witness on the ground, but he was asserting nothing happened.

This is that email:

Hi Joe, As requested, a summary of our conversation from the call: Unfortunately, GLA cameras have not captured the off-loading process from stand 33 where your aircraft had arrived. Cameras on nearby stands were also cross checked but none provided any images of the incident. The employees involved were subject to internal investigation and provided statements from their accounts. You raise the point with no CCTV footage this simply becomes a case of them aligning stories to remove any liability. I explained my next steps in terms of providing in depth briefings on the EMD handling and you offered support with this, we will now look to incorporate yourself and charity employer into our MORSE safety week as a guest speaker to educate teams and prevent recurrence. Disappointment for yourself is the body language and attitude displayed by the staff and you have 3 witnesses who can confirm this. I explained without the evidence to confirm I have two contrasting stories and cannot objectively confirm one to be a true account of the incident. You noticed a somewhat heated conversation and you think this has potential acted as a trigger and frustrated the handlers, resulting in poor handling of your device and subsequent damage. You raised the lack of confidence you now have in travelling with ground handlers handling EMD devices and reference a trip from EDI-CPH (flight details to follow), I will reach out to our local EDI team and seek proactive coms to the handling agent (WFS), I will also look to explore if I can influence making this experience a far more pleasant and enjoyable one. Key take away for Menzies aviation, in a world with such increased focus on travelling with accessibility requirements there is clearly work to be done. (reference to channel 4 documentary) I had forgotten to mention amongst other topics but the team did add in their statements that they were sorry if any behaviours or handling observed was seen to be disrespectful and this was never the intention. Apologies if I have missed anything and please feel free to add/correct – A very insightful conversation that I have taken a lot from and feel very strongly about. Once again, a sincere apology on behalf of all the Menzies Aviation team. Colin  Health & Safety Manager | Menzies Aviation | GLAwww.menziesaviation.com

And that was that. My sentiments were recorded, and I made no short work of explaining that there are two dishonest people in their employ, one of whom felt empowered to deliberately drop a £5000 (now valued at £6600 – thanks inflation) mobility device, comfortable that there is no liability and even less accountability 

During our conversation, I asked, what I could do to make sure this doesn’t happen again, given that the liability agreement protects them. That’s when we agreed that I would attend their safety week in October to talk about my experience and the repercussions of it. 

This will be done through my work at Euan’s Guide – but I am not being paid for this – it’s not about money, it’s about making sure that other disabled people don’t have to feel how I felt.

This damage did not only complicate my life substantially. It drove up my insurance costs by £20 a month, cost me a £100 excess and resulted in me having to downgrade my device, due to it costing a lot more than two years ago and the insurance covering only the previous value

Though I’ve downgraded, I still had to pay £40 for a battery upgrade, which means my existing batteries will work on the device – which just makes sense – and an extra £89, which I’ll explain later.

I use my device for work and will now be travelling to review accessibility at locations in Aberdeen without it. I have to stay overnight to do something that would normally take me a day, which also means time away from my family.

All because somebody was clearly having a bad day

Let’s end this on a positive.

As the stockist of my device was quick to provide an assessment and confirm that the device was damaged beyond repair, the insurers were quick to pay out. This meant I was able to get my order in quickly – and due to another customer looking to delay receipt of the same device, I’ve been able to skip the queue and get my device earlier, next week with a little luck – though they had ordered an upgraded LCD Screen – which costs £89, I was willing to pay this to get the device quicker.

The lead time is usually 4-6 weeks, which would have taken me past my 40th birthday, and meant that I’d be without it when we go to Copenhagen.

Liability for the damage falls on the airline, Jet2, despite them being lovely through this whole ordeal. 

As I claimed my insurance and ordered the device, Jet2 weren’t able to cover the cost of the device but they offered me £450 in cash, calculated as £100 for the excess, £240 to cover the additional insurance costs for a year and the £89 for the upgraded screen, which they kindly rounded up. In addition, they provided me with a £700 Jet2 voucher to apply against our next holiday with free inflight meals for the three of us.

So yeah, it was a horrible experience which simply should not have happened, but I now have an opportunity to make a difference – oh, and I’ll be reaching out to Rights on Flights. 

I may not be able to change the liability protections afforded to baggage handlers in the UK, but the fight for accountability – fetch my gloves.