Treated like baggage, discriminated against at boarding for procedures that included a disabled passenger, only to be left on the ground without justification.

The journey of a family from Anzio ended with a bitter taste in the mouth, the taste of an injustice done without consideration towards a couple of parents with a child in a wheelchair.

After hours of waiting at the gate, the disabled teenager was stranded with his family, without life-saving medication and bounced around the airport for hours, waiting for a flight back from Frankfurt to Rome.

The boy’s mother: “There was no flight crew to help us” The family, originally from Anzio, was returning on Thursday 17 August from a holiday in Glasgow, a route that included a stopover in Frankfurt to then return to Rome. However, when it was time to change flights, the couple, with three dependent children, one of whom was in a wheelchair, had to wait for the plane to arrive at Frankfurt airport and for the staff who would help them board with the wheelchair.

A procedure that requires specific staff, additional costs and preventive certifications during flight booking, as required by the European regulation in force since 2006. According to the Community standard, the carrier, as requested by the passenger, must compulsorily do

Criteria that the family would have indicated at the time of booking, but which the airline did not recognize. The journey experienced by the Anzio family thus proved to be an inhuman ordeal: first, a flight delay from Glasgow made them miss their first connection, to travel from Frankfurt to Rome. Then, the passengers rescheduled on the next 21.30 flight, as agreed with the same airline, parents and 3 children are abandoned in an airport restaurant

As also reported by Corriere della Sera: “They left us at the restaurant agreeing to wait there for a colleague of theirs, who was supposed to escort us to the plane”. However, no flight operator showed up to help them.

At 20.30, the father then decided to approach the gate and understand what was happening. There he discovered that the airline had not provided any disabled assistance for them and that his son, a 13-year-old in a wheelchair, would not have been able to return to Rome.

The father: “We asked for help several times, they told us we hadn’t shown up at the gate on time” As if that weren’t enough, once we got to the gate, things got even more complicated.

Not only was the family left to their own devices, after hours of delays and waiting beyond their control, but they also had to deal with the disorganization and surly nature of the staff. In the absence of the disability staff, they were accused of showing up even late for the appointment with the assistance service for the disabled.

Without answers, assistance and even with the risk of health complications. The life-saving drugs of the disabled 13-year-old, unlike the passenger, have been boarded. Moments of tension are added to the fear that the boy could feel bad and that no one can help them.

“The requests to have the anti-epileptic drug back for our son were all useless, an employee even took us to the medical center”, says the father, but when he saw that the door was closed, he left them alone again, taking leave and with no other choice. Thus at least three hours pass from the arrival of the family at the gate, in a dimension of abandonment and discrimination for a fragile category.

The first free flight that the airline offered them to return to Rome was for the following day, July 18, at 12, forcing them to spend the night in Frankfurt. At midnight, they were offered to stay in a hotel 30 km from the airport, forcing them to transfer again. A journey of hope that ended only by touching Roman soil, reclaiming one’s rights.