Two
families were left to camp out at Birmingham Airport for 10 hours after
bungling Ryanair staff let them board the wrong plane... to Latvia.
Stephen
Pritchard, 37, and son Jake Kelly, 14, and Jo Housley and her three
young children thought they were on a flight to Almeria, Spain, after
being ushered through departures from East Midlands Airport at 6.30am
yesterday.
Instead
the two families - who did not know each other - discovered they were
on a plane taking them 1,850 miles away from their chosen destination to
Latvia just minutes before it was due to take off.
Fed-up: Stephen Pritchard and his son
Jake Kelly (left), 14, and Jo Housley and her baby daughter Erin and
sons Charlie and Jordan, stranded at Birmingham Airport after Ryanair
allowed them onto the wrong flight
Arduous: The two families endured a longer-than anticipated journey to their holiday destination
By
the time the mistake had been discovered they had missed their flight
to Spain and were told to catch a taxi to Birmingham Airport for the
next available flight, a full 11 hours later.
Outraged
Mr Pritchard, a painter and decorator from Cannock, Staffordshire,
said: 'I couldn’t believe it. Our boarding passes were checked three
times, at the gate and the concourse and on the plane, where we were
even led to our seats.
'This
was a massive security risk, I could have been a terrorist or anything.
This comes at a time when they are supposed to be tightening security.
It’s unbelievable.'
The
confusion began when two queues of holidaymakers formed closely
together at East Midlands Gate Four where the flight to Riga in Latvia
was departing from and Gate Five, where the Almeria plane was flying
from.
Once
the families arrived at the desk, they showed their boarding passes and
were let through by staff without any hesitation. They went on to the
next check point and their passes were checked again and still no
problems were flagged up.
Bungling: Ryanair checked the boarding passes of the family three times at East Midlands Aiport
Once on the plane, their boarding cards were marked by a flight attendant and they were pointed towards their seats.
They
were only alerted to the flight fiasco when the real occupants of the
seats arrived - but by then the families were told it was too late for
them to get on their flight to Spain.
Instead,
they were told the next available flight to Spain was to Murcia - which
is 107 miles from Almeria - and would be from Birmingham Airport. The
two stranded families met after being taken off the plane and spent £70
on a shared taxi to Birmingham.
Inconvenienced: The two families were forced to transfer to Birmingham Airport to catch a plane to Spain
Jo,
29, from Rotherham, was travelling with her four-month-old baby Erin
and sons Jordan, 10, and Charlie, seven, to see her mother-in-law in
Spain.
Mr Pritchard was taking Jake to stay with his gran during the summer break.
He said he would have to pay another £130 once in Murcia for a taxi to Almeria.
He
added: 'When they discovered we were on the wrong plane we were told
the correct flight was all sealed and the pilot would not let anyone
else on.
'Originally they wanted us to pay extra for another flight but I refused.
We were told we could fly to Murcia at around 6pm from Birmingham Airport, but we’d have to claim the taxi fare back.
'We are £70 out of pocket and have had to change all my Euros back to Sterling to pay for things.'
A
spokesman for Ryanair said: 'While it is the responsibility of each
customer to ensure they board the correct aircraft, we have asked our
handling agent at East Midlands to investigate this incident and ensure
it does not recur.
'We
sincerely apologise to the customers in question, who have been
transferred onto the next available flight free of charge, provided with
refreshment vouchers and advised to keep receipted expenses for
reimbursement of additional transport costs.'
The
fiasco follows news that Gatwick Airport has launched an urgent
investigation after a man passed through to the departure lounge without
a ticket.
The
man, believed to be a Turkish national, managed to pass through the
security area and reach the departure lounge at around 8.20am on Tuesday
morning, despite not having a boarding pass.
It is believed that the man was not intending to travel, but wanted to see his family off.
They
passed through a buggy lane – but security staff failed to tally the
number of boarding passes with the number of people coming through.
They then passed successfully through the airport’s scanning procedures and into the departure lounge.
The
incidents come less than a week after it was revealed that security
checks were being enhanced at airports with uncharged electronic devices
being refused access.
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