A British couple intending to travel to Spain for a family holiday were instead flown 1,500 miles away to Lithuania after airport staff escorted them to the wrong plane.
Andrew and Victoria Gore, both 47, planned to board a flight to Barcelona and then head to the Costa Brava on May 25 to celebrate Mr Gore’s 47th birthday. But according to BBC News they boarded the wrong flight on budget airline Ryanair as the rest of the family arrived in Barcelona.
The couple told BBC News they felt “appalled” after the exchange, which they described as a “nightmare”.
“We were told they were definitely on the flight and said ‘relax,’ so we slept because we were up early,” Mr. Gore told the outlet. “When I woke up, it didn’t look like Spain outside the window, I turned on my phone and it said ‘Welcome to Lithuania.’”
The plane lands at Riga International Airport
Mr Gore, an amputee, and Mrs Gore, an autistic, ended up on a flight to Kaunas, Lithuania, after booking special assistance at Bristol Airport in England. Passengers with disabilities or reduced mobility are legally entitled to special assistance at airports at no additional cost when traveling from various regions, including the UK and the US
“We were away many times and always had special care, so it was nothing new to us,” Ms Gore told BBC News. “The minibus took us to the Ryanair plane, they checked our boarding pass and let us onto the plane.”
Bristol Airport said it was working to investigate the incident and make improvements to ensure these types of incidents do not happen again, while Ryanair said crews make several pre-departure announcements about the flight’s destination and attributed the ‘error at Bristol Airport’s special assistance provider, BBC. News reported.
A Ryanair spokesperson said Bristol Airport’s special assistance provider put the couple on the wrong flight to Kaunas “despite gate signage clearly showing the flight’s destination”.
“Before departure, the crew makes several announcements to alert passengers to the flight’s destination,” the spokesperson said, adding that it “sincerely apologizes to these passengers for any inconvenience.”
A spokesperson for Bristol Airport said: “We have been working with our business partners to investigate this incident. All customers have their travel documentation checked by the airline or their ground handling agent before boarding a plane.
“Since being made aware of the issue, Bristol Airport has been working with our aviation support agent and special assistance provider to investigate the circumstances and introduce improvements for the future,” the spokesperson added. “We will contact the customer with information to route the complaint to the correct business partner for resolution.”
“Our flight number appeared at the gate and we were taken to the bottom of the steps of the plane, where the ground staff checked our boarding passes,” Gore said. “When we boarded the plane, the stewardess checked our documents again.”
After alerting Ryanair officials that they were in the wrong country, they were booked on the next available flight to Barcelona, which would only arrive the next morning, and from Riga in neighboring Latvia.
The airline booked the couple an overnight stay and a 150-mile Uber ride to the airport.
They eventually landed in Barcelona and reached their hotel on the Costa Brava, but their bags didn’t arrive until two days later, the outlet noted, as they didn’t board the initial flight from Bristol, England.
“It was surreal and an experience I would never want to have again. Our family was worried sick and we were exhausted when we finally arrived,” Mr Gore said. “Even though they eventually took us to the right place, the experience had already happened, the damage had been done, and we cannot forget those troubling moments.” [Fox News]
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