A HARLOW Paralympian says she was “neglected” and left to wait on a plane for 45 minutes before airport staff helped her reports the BBC.

Anne Wafula-Strike was on a Ryanair flight to Stansted on Friday and had booked assistance a month in advance.

However, when the plane landed two hours behind schedule she found herself waiting as the other passengers collected their bags and left.

Mrs Wafula-Strike, 49, from Harlow in Essex, said: “I felt angry and very neglected, it’s not good when you are abandoned on a flight and everyone else is picking up their bags and walking off.

“That’s the time you start to think ‘I wish I could just walk like them and get my luggage and walk off the plane’ but I have to rely on assistance to get off, it was bad.”

When a staff member arrived to help the wheelchair racer she said they told her they were short staffed and had been unsure if her flight from Berlin had arrived.

Mrs Wafula-Strike said: “When someone like me speaks up or raises their voice people will think it is only happening to one or two people but it is becoming a common occurrence for people with disabilities to be left neglected on planes or not able to get into trains.

Ryanair said a company called Omniserv was responsible for assisting disabled passengers at Stansted.

A spokesman for the airport added: “We are disappointed to hear about Anne’s experience at Stansted on Friday evening.

“We are in the process of investigating how such a situation arose and have asked Omniserv, the company responsible for looking after passengers with reduced mobility, for a full explanation of why Anne had to wait for such a long time on the aircraft.”

Mrs Wafula-Strike received a payout after being forced to wet herself on a train last year.