Rose Finlay, who spoke out this week after her "trip from hell" to Cuba with Sunwing, says the airline returned her missing wheelchair on Saturday but it is badly damaged.

Finlay, who had been without her $7,000 custom wheelchair since getting home to Canada on Thursday, said it was returned to her in an "unusable and unsafe" condition.

"After thoroughly inspecting my chair, there is extensive damage," she told CBC News by email.

"There are also miscellaneous dings and scratches as well as it being filthy."

Finlay provided photographs that she says shows damage to the chair's suspension and brakes, as well as its anti-tipping mechanism.

She also said it has a tag showing it went to Holguin, Cuba, which is odd as she never flew to that destination during her trip.

Sunwing says 'no visible' damage

The Bowmanville, Ont., woman went to Cuba last week with her husband and said her holiday was marred from the start due to poor customer service. Finlay laid out the problems she encountered in a Facebook post which has been shared more 68,000 times.

Sunwing has apologized to Finlay and blamed the error on "inter-departmental miscommunications."

Rose Finlay says this picture shows the wheelchair's bent anti-tipper. (Submitted) Representatives from the airline returned the wheelchair around 8 a.m. ET Saturday and said in a written statement to CBC News that it did not appear to be damaged.

"We inspected and photographed the wheelchair and there were no visible indications of any damage," said Sunwing vice president of marketing Janine Chapman.

Chapman added that the company did not hear from Finlay after the chair was returned.

"At this point, we have been unable to confirm the receipt of any communication to the contrary."

Chapman said the airline is still "very apologetic" for the time Finlay spent without her wheelchair and that it and the Cuban airport authorities are trying to figure out what went wrong.