British Airways and London City airport are facing allegations they irreparably damaged the £25,000 wheelchair belonging to a playwright, actor and activist, who has been left unable to conduct her normal daily life without it.

Athena Stevens, who has cerebral palsy, says she has lost much of her independence since her wheelchair was broken while she attempted to take a flight to Glasgow in October.

Stevens, best known for her play The Amazing Vancetti Sisters, of which she is writing a screen version, says she was forced to use a back-up manual chair for more than two months.

A temporary replacement electric wheelchair, which she rented earlier this month, caused problems at home and work and in fulfilling the demands of her business, she added.

“It’s awful. It doesn’t even get into my office. I now need someone to help me every time I use the toilet.” Stevens, 31, told the Guardian.

BA has refunded £680 for return tickets she and her PA were unable to use in October because the plane could not accommodate her wheelchair.

Stevens, also an online documentary maker and interviewer who describes herself as a “creative entrepreneur”, is seeking compensation for losses she says she has incurred from cancelling film shoots, being unable to complete other business projects on time and hiring additional support workers to help her in her daily life. She also faces continuing uncertainty in finding a suitable electric wheelchair as a permanent replacement, she says.

Neither BA nor the airport have admitted liability for the parts they and their agents are alleged to have played in what Stevens says is irreparable damage to the chair, which is no longer made.

Stevens had not insured the chair she says was damaged in October. She said she tried to get it covered last year and no one was willing to cover it as there were only about 500 in the world.

She believes a suitable new one would cost more than £30,000 and have neither all the functions of her original chair nor meet her mobility requirements, which include travelling on London Underground, going up five-inch kerbs and the ability to go up and down stairs.



The airline and airport had, she said, agreed to cover the cost of taxi fares, but only up to a total of £1,000, while attempts to resolve the dispute continued because she could not use public transport.



Stevens, 31, however, told the Guardian she was losing, at “a conservative estimate” about £1,500 a week in costs for extra personal support and in lost business.

“This needs to be addressed before we think long term. I have a staff of five people to support. I can’t stay at home, simply because someone else has made things more difficult,” she said. “In the disabled community, your wheelchair is considered an extension of your body. My chair was prescribed for me by a doctor.”

The Guardian has seen digital correspondence between Stevens and the airport, the airline, and BA’s liability adjusters, McLarens Aviation.

Stevens said she had told BA in advance she was travelling in a wheelchair and provided its dimensions and information about its batteries. However, staff at the airline and the airport seemed unaware she would need assistance in boarding, nor did they appear to have appropriate training.

By the time she was on the plane, she said, the pilot had announced that the flight had been delayed because staff had been “unable to load a wheelchair”.

Stevens said in an email to BA that she found it completely unnecessary that a pilot had singled out the assisted device of a particular passenger as the reason why a flight was delayed over two hours.

Stevens alleges the way her chair was handled led to its software being damaged, incapacitating the wheelchair itself. There was also external damage.

She said she was later told by ground crew that BA had “changed planes at the last minute and decided to go with a plane that had no space for an electric wheelchair even though they knew that there would be one travelling”.

A direct-message Twitter exchange between BA and Stevens in the days after the incident the company said it had no record of an aircraft change. But an email from the airport to Stevens in November said: “We understand from BA that they subcontracted the operation of the flight to Glasgow to another company and that the aircraft was therefore different to that originally planned.

“That was not something that London City airport was involved with or had any control over. It would appear that the change of aircraft accounted for the difficulties the ramp crew experienced in loading your wheelchair but that is something to which BA will have to respond.”

McLarens last month insisted to Stevens there was “a genuine desire on the part of all concerned to see you restored to the level of mobility previously enjoyed”.

It added: “However, we trust you will further appreciate that it is necessary for BA to satisfy themselves that they are responsible for the repair or replacement of your chair by virtue of the fact that they caused damage.”

The Guardian has asked BA whether the aircraft used for the London to Glasgow flight had been changed, along with other questions relating to the incident.

BA said: “We are working with the customer and London City airport to resolve the issue. However, as the matter is now in the hands of lawyers it would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this stage.”

A London City airport spokesperson said: “The airport is working with the passenger and British Airways to resolve this matter. The situation is being dealt with by lawyers and we are therefore unable to provide further comment.”