Airport Absurdity And Mobility Aid Mishaps

Airport, Barcelona, Disabilities, Employees, Funny Stories, Health & Body, Security, Spain | Working | June 13, 2024

I’m the author of this story. I thought I would share what happened to me on the way back.

For context: as a result of injuries I picked up playing field hockey in school, I developed arthritis in my knees and hips in my twenties. Because of this, if I sit for a long time, I can get painfully stiff, so if I’m on a long journey, I carry a walking cane so that I can get moving again.

On the journey out, despite the screwdriver shenanigans I highlighted in the last story, the cane raised not an eyebrow, despite being folded up and in my hand luggage.

A week later, flying back from Spain to the UK? A totally different story.

The Spanish baggage check found my cane… and wouldn’t allow it on the plane. I was told that it would have to be checked into the hold. I tried to argue with the security guy (yes, it was a guy) that it was a medical aid and that I would need it to help me get off the plane, but my Spanish was limited, or his English was, or he just didn’t listen. So, I had no choice but to get it labelled up and put into the hold. Our luggage had already been loaded; it had to go in loose. I resigned myself to never seeing it again and to a painful disembarkation in the UK.

I rejoined my wife’s family and went back through security. My bag was checked and cleared, I walked through the metal detector… and set it off. Up came an associate with a wand, which she waved over me. It pinged at my hip. Great. In my annoyance over the cane, I’d forgotten to take my keys out of my pocket. I muttered an apology and was about to take them out when, suddenly, the security person who had originally objected to the cane came rushing over, waving his arms and shouting in Spanish. “Brilliant,” I thought. “I’m in trouble, and I’m about to be refused boarding.”

Imagine my surprise when, instead, we were escorted through security to the departure lounge and fast-tracked through boarding! My brother-in-law, whose Spanish is better than mine, asked me:

Brother-In-Law: “Why do they think you have an artificial leg?”

Yes, folks, because I’d kicked up a fuss about my walking cane, and because something at hip height had set off their metal detector, Spanish security assumed — didn’t ask, just assumed — that I was wearing a prosthetic. I didn’t mind. It got us onto the plane first!

Then, at the other end, when we arrived in the UK, two very nice stewardesses were waiting with a wheelchair to take me off the plane!

Oh, and I did see the cane again — when we went through to get the luggage, it was one of the first things off the plane.