EasyJet employee accuses 10-year-old girl of faking asthma attack, refuses to let family board flight as they were late
GATWICK, UK: A father has slammed EasyJet after claiming that his sick daughter was left lying on an airport floor for over half an hour after they were not allowed to board their flight.
Keith Campbell had recorded a confrontation with the staff of the airline after he and his family were not allowed to board as they were late.
Video taken at the Gatwick Airport shows Campbell's daughter Abigail, 10, cradling her head on the floor as Campbell desperately asks for help.
Abigail suffers from Brittle asthma which can be very difficult to control and can also become life-threatening.
In the video, Keith asks the staff member, "Easyjet is happy to leave a sick child on the floor, are they? Is that what you're telling me?"
The employee responds, "No, you have it (Abigail) on the floor because you want to. You are recording her because you want to."
The angry father responds, "Oh, so you think this is a setup, do you? Are you telling me my child isn't sick? Are you telling me my child is play-acting?"
Campbell shared that other passengers were absolutely shocked at the staff who left his daughter lying on the floor.
Another video shows Abigail wired to a breathing apparatus in the middle of the airport after the staff refused to find a suitable place for the child to be treated.
According to Campbell, the family were three minutes late as Abigail's asthma had left her exhausted.
However, EasyJet insists that the family was 17 minutes late.
To make things worse, the family were stranded for two days as the airport had grounded all flights on July 10.
Campbell said, "I could see she was going downhill, it can be dangerous. She took really bad and needed nebulizers, so I asked could they provide somewhere to do it. They just said there's a plug socket over there. My daughter is really self-conscious about her illness, it upsets her a lot. She blamed herself for us missing the flight, she said 'This is my illness spoiling things again'," reported Mirror.
A spokeswoman for the airline said, "We are sorry for the Campbell family’s experience at the customer service desk. They did not receive the level of care we expect to be delivered by our ground handling partners and so we are investigating this with them."
She added that they had provided Campbell and his family alternative flights for free and also hotel accommodation.