A mother found herself marooned at an airport for nearly 15 hours alongside her two young children after alleging that airline personnel barred her from boarding her flight back to Newcastle. Megan Patrick was making her way home following four days in Santa Ponsa, Majorca, accompanied by her children Theo, nine, Saffia, four, and a friend with her nine-year-old son. The getaway had been a surprise treat for the youngsters when they finished school for the summer holidays.
However, their fantastic break turned into a nightmare when they reached Palma Airport to find numerous flights were running behind schedule, including their 12.10pm Jet2 service to Newcastle. When they finally attempted to board the aircraft, they were informed they had missed their opportunity. This occurred despite Megan’s assertion that the plane remained on the tarmac for an additional 30 minutes before taking off. Jet2 confirmed the carrier is now looking into the incident.
Megan said: “Normally when I get back from holiday I’m dying to book something else, I always want to have something to look forward to and we travel quite a lot. But I feel like [the experience] has traumatised me. I don’t want to go on holiday, which is not me.
“And I can’t see myself doing it again, especially not on my own with the kids. That’s probably what is most upsetting because we love to travel and I feel like that’s completely destroyed now because I’ll always have a fear that something like that is going to happen and there’s no one there to help you, it’s an awful situation.”
The 35-year-old from Boldon recounted her ordeal at Palma Airport, where she arrived two-and-a-half hours before her scheduled flight only to find it delayed by one hour and 45 minutes. She was warned by staff that the delay might extend and was advised to monitor the departure board closely, so the family found a place in front of a board in order to keep an eye on the status of their flight, reports Chronicle Live.
Describing the chaotic scene, the beauty salon owner said: “The airport was like a cattle market. Almost every flight was showing as delayed and there were people in the departure lounge lying on the floor who looked like they had been there for hours. I thought it looks like we’re going to be in for a bit of a wait here.”
However, at approximately 12:30pm, Megan noticed the departure board suddenly indicated ‘boarding at Gate A20’ instead of ‘delayed’. They immediately made their way to the gate, which took 11 minutes, but upon presenting her children’s boarding passes, she claims she was denied boarding.
Megan alleged that the aircraft remained on the tarmac for an additional 30 minutes after she was turned away. This led to an eight-and-a-half-hour wait for another flight, costing her £390 in total, which also experienced several hours of delay.
The owner of Brow Wow in Low Fell recounted her airport ordeal, saying: “When we got to the gate the lady scanned my boarding pass, looked at my passport and made a comment about us being lucky to be getting on because there’s a queue to board the plane otherwise I wouldn’t have been getting on. I found that really confusing considering the boards had just changed.”
She continued with disbelief: “When I went to give her the kids’ passports she said ‘No, actually you can’t get on’. I was thinking this can’t happen. It still said ‘Newcastle boarding’ on the gate.”
Megan described the ensuing chaos: “I just went into sheer panic thinking what am I going to do? The kids were so upset. My four-year-old was hysterical and the whole place was looking at us. I thought they’ll have to let us on. The plane was there and the door was open, I could see it.”
She expressed her frustration: “It was so frustrating that the plane was there, it was still showing as boarding, and the door was open. I was literally pleading with them saying that the door is open but they were saying ‘no, your bag is getting taken off’.”
In desperation, Megan admitted: “I was saying by the time you take the bags off we could be sat on that plane, it would take us about 30 seconds. I even considered just running on because she’d already scanned my boarding pass and I thought if I could just see the staff on the plane they would let us on.”
Megan expressed her confusion about how other passengers managed to reach the gate on time for their Jet2 flight, speculating that they might have been using the airline’s app for updates. She admitted she was unaware that UK flights typically depart from Gate A, a detail possibly known to others before it appeared on the departure boards.
She recounted being informed by a crew member that no boarding announcement could be made in Palma’s departure lounge due to the absence of an intercom system. Megan also claimed that despite staff mentioning they attempted to call her mobile, she had no record of missed calls. Following the refusal to board her, she said the flight remained on the tarmac for over half an hour.
Left to work out how to return home and retrieve her luggage, Megan encountered other UK-bound Jet2 passengers who had missed their flights; they offered each other support amidst the chaos.
Megan shared her distress: “I was absolutely devastated. I didn’t know when the next flight was or what we were going to do. I was in absolute panic and had anxiety because I didn’t know what to do. It was the most horrible feeling being stranded.
“We were asking what happens now and were told that all we could do was go back out, find our bags, and book a new flight. I asked where we needed to go because we were at the boarding gate so wasn’t sure how to go back and she looked at her watch and said ‘My shift finishes in two minutes so I can’t help’.”
Megan eventually managed to rebook her family onto the 9.35pm Jet2 flight which departed at 12.06am.
A spokesperson for Jet2.com and Jet2holidays said: “We are sorry to hear about Ms Patrick’s experience. Any flight delays are always communicated very clearly, and we always advise customers to check departure boards regularly if they are in the airport terminal. We are investigating this matter further, however we can confirm that all other customers boarded the aircraft. We will be discussing the matter directly with Ms Patrick.”