Ryanair cabin crew ordered the removal of a thirteen-year-old autistic girl from her return flight from Faro to East Midlands Airport, leaving her distressed and stranded at the airport.
Daisy Jarvis, 13, was forced off the flight after cabin crew refused to believe that she was flying with family members, despite there being several family members on board and had her removed by security.
Daisy was removed from the Ryanair flight, despite having a letter from her mum, Michelle, giving her permission to travel without her but with other family members of which there were several.
Daisy's Mother, Michelle Maddock, 32, of Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, was advised not to fly after she suffered a bleed on the brain shortly before the family were due to fly to the Algarve to celebrate her mother’s 60th birthday. Sensibly, Michele contacted Ryanair whose staff instructed her to provide a letter of permission and a copy of her parents’ passports.
Daisy landed in Faro with her aunts, uncles, cousins and her godmother on August 10th without any problem regarding her status.
When the family returned to Faro airport for their return flight on August 17th, Daisy was allowed through control and onto the aircraft but then was removed.
Michele commented that, "My daughter Daisy boarded the flight with the rest of my family with no problem until ten minutes before the flight was due to take off.
"A lady working for Ryanair came up to my daughter and told her they believed she had gotten on the plane without an adult and she must get off the plane - but an adult has to go with her.
"After my family members explained the situation - showing them the documents I was told to send - she came back with a security guard who forced my daughter off the plane.
"My 13-year-old is autistic and was absolutely hysterical. Her 70-year-old godmother was made to leave the plane with her.”
While Daisy was stranded at Faro airport, Michele tried for two hours to get hold of Ryanair which put Daisy and her Godmother on a later flight.
Ryanair’s explanation reads as follows, “Children under-16 years of age are not permitted to travel unaccompanied. In this instance, the child was booked on two separate bookings for the outbound and return flights.
"While we regret any inconvenience, as no other adult was travelling on the return booking, she could not travel on the flight.
"As a gesture of goodwill, the child and an accompanying adult were moved on to another booking on the next available flight, which departed to East Midlands later that day.”
It is not known how Daisy provided signed permission from her mother for this second flight. If airline staff broke the rules they so rigorously had enforced just hours earlier, this inconsistency could be blamed on a rare realisation by management that the PR may not look too good when the story hits the media.
