An elderly woman who is visually impaired claims she was “abandoned” at Heathrow Airport despite requesting wheelchair assistance. Zakiya Tausique flew from Pakistan to London with Gulf Air on March 24. The 70-year-old tells MyLondon she had a ticket which specifically stated that she is visually impaired, with mobility issues that mean she required wheelchair assistance upon arrival.
The airline had arranged for her to be collected from the aircraft but her daughter, Reema Dada, claims Zakiya was then left at the immigration hall and not escorted the rest of the way to where she had been waiting for three hours post-landing. Reema says she had attempted to find a Gulf Air representative but they were “nowhere to be seen” at 6pm.
Reema says she has submitted several complaints to Gulf Air, on March 24 and 25, but has not had a response. Heathrow Airport offered an apology after MyLondon reached out for comment. Zakiya does not wish to fly back with Gulf Air on June 14 as she had originally planned after her “inexcusable” travel experience.
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(Image: MyLondon)
Reema said: “The reason why I want to raise this matter is because this was not just a simple service failure. They put my mother at risk through their recklessness. She has travelled through Heathrow before and when such assistance is requested, they make sure they responsibly bring her out to arrivals fully assisted. This should not be allowed to happen.”
Zakiya says she paid £1,500 for the Business Class flight and specifically requested assistance having grown up with a visual impairment that she now navigates as an adult. She tells MyLondon she has flown over 35 times before and previously had no issues to speak of.
Speaking on the airline, Reema said: “We literally chose Gulf Air because they had the option to mark ‘needs assistance’ and you can mark mobility issues – not all airlines have that. The staff were great on the plane. She got all the assistance she needed until she landed.”
Arriving at Heathrow, they claim she was “abandoned.” Her daughter, Reema, claims: “She walked by herself, dragging the trolley back and I know that would have been a struggle. They dropped her off before immigration and then just left.” Reema added: “She said she was calling around for people to help.”
Zakiya says she managed to walk to the immigration desk and spoke to a staff member at Heathrow. She claims he told her to sit down while they looked into the situation. Later, a fellow passenger helped her walk to the luggage belt, according to Reema.
“Eventually she walked out of the gate, barely hanging on the trolley pushing herself out,” said Reema. “She had three bags but this is a woman you can clearly see, cannot do this herself. It’s marked in multiple places, you’ve given us an option on an airline ticket to mark if she’s visually impaired and we’ve done that. We put down visually impaired, and this woman has dragged herself out alone, pushing the trolley.”
She added: “Just one stumble and it could have been so much worse. I was fuming, I didn’t know what to do. I just wanted to cry. With the state I saw her in when she came out… I am in awe at how she did it.”
At this point Zakiya was “exhausted”, Reema said, so she found her a wheelchair and then attempted once more to find a member of staff from Gulf Air to complain to.
She said: “I couldn’t find anyone. I went up and down the whole place. I couldn’t find anyone there. There was no-one there. It was about half five in the evening. It wasn’t the middle of the night or a late night flight.”
Reema, who works in disability inclusion, said this is not what she would expect to see. She explained: “This is my day job, I work in this facility – it was very frustrating to see that an airport that size cannot cater to something so clearly advertised. It’s a failure in my head, it’s something staring you in the face and nobody was bothered.”
She described the experience as “inexcusable” and added: “There’s two parts: the airline didn’t comply, but surely, the [airport] staff could also see she was struggling on the ground.”
Heathrow Airport offered an apology to Zakiya. A spokesperson said: “We are sorry that we were unable to meet Zakiya’s needs during this busy travel period – her experience did not meet the high standards passengers deserve. We would welcome her to contact us directly so that we can offer a personal apology and reassure her ahead of any future travel plans.”
Reema claims she has reached out to Gulf Air directly via email (on March 24) but has not received a response. She said she resorted to tweeting their customer service team on March 25 and received a message telling her to fill in the complaint form she had already completed.
She explained: “I got really upset the next day, and I tweeted a nice long rant and all I got was ‘sorry for the inconvenience. Please complain on this website.'”
The family wish for an apology from the airline and would appreciate a refund to ensure her mother does not have to fly back to Pakistan with Gulf Air. MyLondon has made multiple attempts to reach out to Gulf Air for comment.
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I’m Beth, a News Reporter for MyLondon, covering anything from TV and crime to human interest stories, with a particular focus on health causes. I’ve been nominated for an NCTJ Award for Excellence in the Data category.
Three stories I’ve worked on in the past month that I’m proud of are:
‘I just feel like screaming’: ‘Healthy’ woman, 28, can’t even leave her bed after being hit by paralysis, seizures, and memory loss
Woman, 38, fighting for her and baby’s life after pregnancy ‘side effect’ turns out to be cervical cancer
‘I was in so much pain I slept upright in a chair but was told I had to wait eight months for surgery’
I’m currently based near Hampstead but I’ll write about any area of the best place in the world. It’s been a dream of mine since I was tiny to live in London and I’m so grateful I get to call this hustling, bustling city my home.
Got a story? You can email me at [email protected] or DM me on Twitter @bethgulliver1.
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