Disabled TV presenter Sophie Morgan abandoned on empty plane for 40 minutes

A paralysed television presenter was abandoned on a plane for 40 minutes after it landed at Gatwick.

Paralympics presenter Sophie Morgan was left alone and humiliated after her EasyJet flight landed at the London airport and was made to wait for almost an hour before staff could escort her off the plane, having removed her wheelchair.

Sophie, 33, was irate when every other passenger had been allowed to leave the plane except her, so decided to tweet a selfie that included the long, empty aisle of the plane she was on to show her annoyance.

Sophie shared a photo of her isolation, with the caption: ‘Left on board @easyJet for 40 mins. On stuck in ambulift. No apologies. Only rude staff..’

EasyJet responded to her tweets, claiming they were ‘very sorry’ and admitted it was ‘unacceptable’ – but Sophie pointed out it was actually ‘almost the norm’ when it came to helping disabled passengers off their planes.

Despite branding staff as ‘incredibly rude’, the telly host also said they were ‘helpful’ but the entire process of a disabled person travelling to was ‘pathetic’.

Sophie shared the airline’s responses to her 13.3k followers to highlight the injustice of how she was treated.

And it appeared that she wasn’t alone when it came to displeased disabled commuters who felt they had received poor service and been discriminated against.

Sophie tweeted support to BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner, who raised the issue of how disabled passengers were treated at Heathrow. Now, there’s a real discussion happening when it comes to the treatment of passengers who need assistance on and off of flights.

The news comes just hours after former Paralympian Sophia Warner, 43, was left in tears after EasyJet asked her to prove she was disabled on a flight from Milan to London. ‘You look completely normal. Why do you need help?’ she was questioned.

The presenter also tweeted out support for the former athlete, describing the incident as ‘unreal’.

Sophie has been paralysed since 2003 after being involved in a car crash, suffering a T6 spinal cord injury.

She has featured in a number of programmes addressing disability, such as Beyond Boundaries, Britain’s Missing Top Model, and The World’s Worst Place To Be Disabled? where she traveled to Ghana. She was also lead presenter at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.

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