A woman missed her dad's funeral because of a flight cancellation. But Tracy Dane said better communication from airline easyJet would have allowed her to change her plans in time.
She said it was "the worst day of my life" as she spoke about the experience on TV last night. Tracy lives near Lyon in France and lost her father suddenly in late May.
Speaking to the BBC's Panorama programme about the chaos that has plagued airports this year, she described that the only flight she could find back to Bristol was with easyJet from Geneva. The programme reported how she got to the airport "in good time" only to receive an alert from easyJet that IT problems had led to the cancellation of around 200 flights, reports BristolLive.
That included Tracy's flight, with the plane still in Bristol. She said that she wasn't informed about the cancellation, as if she had been she could have booked a different flight.
"It was such an important trip," Tracy told Panorama. "I kept checking my phone and I saw that it was cancelled. There was a moment of disbelief."
She added: "I firmly belief that, had easyJet officially cancelled the flight when they knew no aeroplane was going to arrive in Geneva, I would have had time to use the app to switch electronically to the Gatwick flight and I would have been able to go to my dad's funeral.
"I was ten metres away from the bridge to board the flight [to Gatwick], the flight hadn't started boarding. It was probably around 10 o'clock, 10.15, when we realised that no one was going to help us and that we would miss the funeral.
"It is probably the worst day of my life. Just feeling so out of control and no one interested in offering any assistance."
According to Panorama, easyJet said that Tracy's flight was cancelled because of air traffic control restrictions that meant cabin crew would have exceeded their safe working hours. However, easyJet has apologised for Tracy's experience and arranged for a donation to be made to the hospice that cared for her father.
Tracy's interview was featured in Monday's (July 18) Panorama "Airport Chaos: What's Gone Wrong". You can watch it on the iPlayer here.
