The former Paralympic athlete was unable to leave for Crotone due to a dispute over the lithium battery in her electric aid.
Former Paralympic athlete Patrizia Saccà was stranded at Turin Caselle airport after she was denied boarding a Ryanair flight to Crotone due to a dispute over the lithium battery in her electric wheelchair.
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Patrizia Saccà is a former Paralympic athlete who won a bronze medal in table tennis in Barcelona 1992. She has already reported difficulties in traveling with her electric wheelchair in the past.
Patrizia Saccà won a bronze medal in table tennis at the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics and for 28 years she traveled by plane to participate in competitions. On Sunday, however, at Turin Caselle airport she was unable to get on the flight to Crotone. According to her story, what stopped her was a discussion about the lithium battery in the electric wheel of her wheelchair. Time passed, the flight was closed and a long day began for her at the airport looking for an alternative to reach Calabria.
The discussion at check-in
Patrizia Saccà had arrived at the airport at 8.20. The Ryanair flight to Crotone should have left at 9.50: she had already checked in online and had presented herself at the Sala Amica, the assistance service for passengers with reduced mobility, with the technical documentation of the electric wheelchair wheel. The lithium battery has a capacity of 300 Wh and the device weighs 20 kilos. At the check-in desk, however, something went wrong. "I was told that that information was not available," Saccà told La Stampa.
The former athlete tried to clarify the situation by showing his documents and asking to speak to a manager. "It didn't help." At 9.20am, with just a few minutes left before the scheduled departure, the flight was closed. And the plane left without her.
A day at the airport
Patrizia Saccà remained in Turin Caselle until the evening, looking for a way to reach Calabria anyway. A ticket office employee gave her a hand, looking for an alternative and finally finding a flight to Lamezia Terme. For Saccà, however, the problem does not end with a missed flight. In December 2024 he had already recounted another odyssey linked to his electric wheelchair during a trip with a stopover in Munich. And this time his message is clear: "I'm not looking for the guilty. I'm looking for answers."
The regret of the airport company
Sagat, the company that manages Turin airport, said it was "regretted" by what happened and said it was "verifying what happened". The company specified that even passengers who have already checked in online and need to take a wheelchair on board must present themselves at the check-in desk "well in advance and with the necessary technical documentation".

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