Passengers Wrongly Banned From Flight

A number of Gibraltarians were either denied access of removed from BA aircraft due to transport them from London Heathrow to Gibraltar on Monday July 31.

According to ground staff at Heathrow, the reason was because of strong winds that the flight might be diverted to Malaga in Spain and they erroneously said that passengers with Gibraltar issued passports would need a Schengen Visa.

One lady who was taking her five-year-old grand daughter was reduced to tears as she claims on social media that BA staff were rude and unhelpful.

Ironically because her passport was issued in UK, the airline would have taken her but because the grand daughters was issued in Gibraltar, it was said that she needed a visa.

In actual fact, a Gibraltarian with a red ID card would have stronger rights than someone with a British passport as a special protocol has been in place since Brexit whereby Gibraltarian born residents don’t have their passports stamped.

The flight departed without those passengers and they were told to return the following day and hope that the wind was less strong.

In the meantime, family members had contacted the Gibraltar Office in London and their representatives in turn contacted BA one of the two airlines operating off of the Rock asking for an explanation as to why ground staff were quite incorrectly refusing to allow genuine passengers with the correct paper work to board.

This didn’t however stop ground staff from refusing access to a later flight and it is only now that the matter seems to have been resolved with a press release from the Gibraltar Government stating “The airline confirmed that the Gibraltar information sheet for BA loading staff at Heathrow Airport wrongly stated that Gibraltarian passengers would require a Schengen visa in the case of a diversion to Malaga, which was a possibility due to wind in Gibraltar. The Government has received assurances that this issue will be resolved immediately.”

There is no explanation as yet as to how or why this information was incorrectly issued, nor it would seem a formal apology for those passengers who were so badly let down and inconvenienced.

It is assumed that any incidental expenses and some form of financial compensation will be made available to those same passengers.