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Daily Record
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Peter Hennessy & Jack Thurlow & Hannah Mackenzie Wood

Pregnant mum and family left stranded in wrong country following Ryanair mix-up

A pregnant mum says she and her family were left stranded in a foreign country following a Ryanair mix-up.

Tia Watson, 24, had flown out to Fuerteventura with her partner Martin Beard and their 4-year-old daughter on Monday, February 14, with the trio due to return home on Friday, February 18.

However, due to Storm Eunice, landing at Manchester Airport was deemed unsafe, with the flight instead diverted to Bordeaux in the south of France.

Ms Watson, who is 23-weeks pregnant, explained that she and her family waited at the airport for two to three hours before being placed in a hotel to stay overnight, according to Nottinghamshire Live.

Ms Watson said: "We received a text on Friday night to say 'we apologise for your overnight delay, your new flight time will be 7.40pm on Saturday evening local time'.

"So obviously we went to sleep, had breakfast and said 'we're not going to set an alarm or anything' as we thought the flight was half-seven at night.

"We got to breakfast at the hotel and there was literally no one at the hotel from our flight.

"We thought this was really weird because the flight we were on was full and there were hundreds of people in our hotel.

The Ryanair flight landing was aborted due to Storm Eunice with passengers diverted to Bordeaux in the south of France. (NurPhoto/PA Images)

"Reception told us that they all got picked up on free coaches this morning.

"We assumed that everyone had been told the correct flight and we're the only ones that had received the error.

"So we were on the phone to Ryanair all day asking what's going on and they said 'don't worry we can see that your flight is still at 7.40pm so just get to the airport normal time and your flight will be there'."

However, when they got to the airport they realised there was no such flight on the departures board.

So they checked with a Ryanair delegate - to then be told that there was no flight going to England that day.

They were instead told that the flight was at 10am that day and they had missed it.

Speaking on Sunday [February 20], Ms Watson continued: "After being on the phone for hours all day, getting to the airport with a four-year-old, I'm pregnant myself and obviously it's very, very stressful.

"Then they said there's a flight today [Sunday, February 20] so they want us to lug all of our stuff to the airport again, three hours before the flight, go through check-in and everything, on the off-chance that three people don't show up.

"That's stressful in itself."

Ms Watson has since said that they eventually managed to get back home on late on Sunday, February 20.

But before the family were able to get home, she said they'd been booked on a flight on Wednesday (February 23).

They feared being stranded for a further few days, Ms Watson adding: "My partner is a reception teacher in Arnold and he's had to contact the headteacher and let him know. It's a nightmare.

"We've got absolutely nothing now.

"We were in Fuerteventura so we obviously only packed summer clothes so now we're in 8C weather in dresses and sandals with no money, no clothes.

"If I don't laugh, I will cry. Yesterday I was just crying all day."

Ryanair has been contacted for comment.

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