Photo: IrishExaminer.com
A 75-year-old Polish man who didn’t speak English ended up in the wrong country, about 1,000 miles from his intended destination – all because Ryanair staff didn’t bother to properly check his boarding pass and ended up put him on the wrong plane.
Pawel Lawreniuk had been visiting with his daughter in the UK, Express reports. He had spent about 2 weeks with her and was at the Leeds-Bradford airport on January 6 to board his flight back home, to Gdansk.
Instead, he ended up in Malta.
It wasn’t until he landed and tried to hail a cab that he understood that he’d arrived at the wrong destination: obviously, no one spoke Polish. To make matters worse, he didn’t speak English either and had very little money on him, so he was completely stranded and confused.
As the man was trying to talk to an agent at a tourist information booth, another passenger, Kamilla Nikolas, overheard his story. Nikolas speaks Polish and she was able to help out, contacting the man’s daughter back in the UK and speaking with the airline to get him on a different flight.
Mr. Lawreniuk flew out of Malta later that night and arrived in Gdansk 14 hours later than the hour he was supposed to arrive, had he boarded the right plane. Now, his daughter wants Ryanair to answer for their snafu, because it is, after all, their duty to check that passengers get on the right flight.
In a statement to the media, the budget airline acknowledges the mishap, adding, “The passenger had undergone all airport security screening before boarding the flight and had a valid passport which had been checked.”
“We are investigating how this occurred and we are re-briefing all staff on procedure. We would like to apologize to Mr Lawreniuk for the inconvenience caused,” the statement adds.
Instead, he ended up in Malta.
It wasn’t until he landed and tried to hail a cab that he understood that he’d arrived at the wrong destination: obviously, no one spoke Polish. To make matters worse, he didn’t speak English either and had very little money on him, so he was completely stranded and confused.
As the man was trying to talk to an agent at a tourist information booth, another passenger, Kamilla Nikolas, overheard his story. Nikolas speaks Polish and she was able to help out, contacting the man’s daughter back in the UK and speaking with the airline to get him on a different flight.
Mr. Lawreniuk flew out of Malta later that night and arrived in Gdansk 14 hours later than the hour he was supposed to arrive, had he boarded the right plane. Now, his daughter wants Ryanair to answer for their snafu, because it is, after all, their duty to check that passengers get on the right flight.
In a statement to the media, the budget airline acknowledges the mishap, adding, “The passenger had undergone all airport security screening before boarding the flight and had a valid passport which had been checked.”
“We are investigating how this occurred and we are re-briefing all staff on procedure. We would like to apologize to Mr Lawreniuk for the inconvenience caused,” the statement adds.
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