An elderly woman who accidentally flew to Bologna instead of Berlin despite using a different airline has criticised the airport’s lack of security.
Lena, who has not shared her full name, was flying alone from Sweden to the German capital to visit her son, Paul-Johan, but had a stopover in Copenhagen.
It was there that the 79-year-old managed to board a Ryanair flight to the Italian city despite having booked through Easyjet.
She said she followed the ‘Go to Gate’ instructions and ‘hurried’ when she saw the other passengers boarding the flight last Thursday.
‘Once I was on board, I saw that Ryanair was written everywhere, and then I thought: “But wait, I was supposed to fly with Easyjet”,’ she said.
Since she had been let on, she presumed there was a collaboration between companies especially since her seat was empty or that she had been re-booked without her knowledge.
When her flight went on for longer than she expected, the horror of her mistake dawned on the pensioner.
‘I think it’s serious that a mistake like this could happen without anyone noticing, considering how much security there is around the flight,’ she told local media.
Lena, 79, was flying alone from Sweden to the German capital to visit her son, Paul-Johan, when she boarded the wrong connecting flight that took her to Bologna
‘What would have happened if it had been a terrorist?’
Ryanair have said that the responsibility to board the right plane lies with each passenger.
They told Expressen: ‘There are several information points during the journey where passengers are informed about the flight’s destination, including screens at the gate and loudspeaker announcements on board’.
Lena said she believed she showed her passport and boarding pass at the gate.
Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen said they ‘take the incident very seriously and are ensuring careful follow-up with the parties involved’.
The pensioner had been on her way to support her son’s student group participating in a UN conference in Rostock over the weekend.
She had arrived in the Danish capital in good time and even managed to sit and wait for some time.
Once on board, she realised that the usual flight time of an hour to Berlin was considerably longer and only began descending 90 minutes in.
Her son, more than 900km away in Berlin, was waiting for his mother at the central station where they had missed their train they were supposed to get
Half an hour and several concerned messages later, he got a text saying ‘Hi, I’m in Bologna. What should I do?’
‘But it could be that the flight is delayed,’ she thought.
When she saw the ‘Welcome to Bologna’ sign after disembarking, Lena said she ‘didn’t think it was true’.
It was only after she was in Northern Italy that she realised both flights to Berlin and Bologna were leaving from the same gate, but the Ryanair flight was boarding first.
The confused passenger tried to explain herself to airport staff in Bologna but she said that they had been ‘unfair and condescending’.
‘I am 79 years old, travelling alone, and it was a very vulnerable situation to end up in.
‘A woman who worked at Ryanair accused me of having made a mistake herself.’
Her son, more than 900km away in Berlin, was waiting for his mother at the central station where they had missed their train they were supposed to get.
Half an hour and several concerned messages later, he got a text saying ‘Hi, I’m in Bologna. What should I do?’.
‘Once I was on board, I saw that Ryanair was written everywhere, and then I thought: “But wait, I was supposed to fly with Easyjet”,’ and presumed there was a collaboration between companies
Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen said they ‘take the incident very seriously and are ensuring careful follow-up with the parties involved’
Neither airline provided much help, he claimed, and Kastrup allegedly did not want to take responsibility, instead re-directing them to the airline providers.
After nearly a day in Bologna airport, Lena was finally put in a two-hour taxi to Venice by Ryanair staff.
She slept in a hotel before catching an early morning flight to be reunited with Paul-Johan. Her luggage is still in Copenhagen.
‘Now I have finally arrived in Rostock, which of course feels good after everything that has happened.’
