They landed 2,000 km from the destination: people with disabilities were put on the wrong plane

Victoria and Andrew Gore, a married couple from Bristol, were due to go on a family holiday to Costa Brava in Spain. Victoria has autism and Andrew is an amputee, and they used the assistance of the airport to get to the Rainier plane. After the plane took off, the two fell asleep and when they woke up they discovered that they had been put on the wrong plane and that they had landed in Lithuania – 2,100 kilometers from their destination. 

The two say that when they got on the plane they asked the flight attendant to sit together and she changed their seats to the second row which was completely free, which meant that no one noticed that they were not supposed to be on the plane at all.

 

“The minibus took us to the plane, they checked our boarding pass and let us in without any problems,” Victoria repeated. “We didn’t see our family coming up, so we asked if they were on board, and we were assured that they were. We had a few drinks, then went to bed because we got up early. When we landed, it was very clear that we were in Lithuania. I was upset and scared, I couldn’t stop crying. It was the worst nightmare My bad.”

 

We boarded Ryanair ‘flight to Barcelona’… but woke up 1,300 miles away in LITHUANIA: Amputee and his wife describe ‘unbelievable’ mix up at Bristol airport before enduring mammoth two-day trek to Spain https://t.co/CRfCHIV8sw pic.twitter.com/OR4aErotOx

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) June 12, 2024

 

After the confusion became clear, the couple describes that the pilot was furious with the crew for not discovering the mistake in time and he ordered to help the two reach their original destination. Unfortunately, there was no direct flight between Copenhagen and Barcelona, ​​so they traveled to Riga, Latvia, and took off from there the next day. Thus, instead of a direct flight of about 1,100 kilometers, the two made a trip of 4,100 kilometers in total.

And if that’s not enough, their luggage was taken off the original flight because the two were not on the plane, so after reaching their original destination they had to wait two more days for her. “They looked at our boarding passes so many times. It’s unbelievable,” concluded Victoria. “I’ve heard of luggage arriving in the wrong place, but not of people.”

spokesman ABMthe airport assistance company, said: “We understand the importance of providing special assistance services carefully and efficiently. We are now conducting a full investigation, from employees to all our partners at the airport, to understand where operational processes need to be strengthened.”