A 53-year-old woman was held in a room for five days after her passport fell out of her bag on a Ryanair flight from the UK to Spain. Tracy McKellar was flying from the UK to La Coronada in western Spain on May 20 when she lost her passport after boarding.
Tracy says she immediately reported her lost passport to customer service when she was in the airport and was handed over to border control officers. Tracy was interviewed and then led to a room where she waited for days.
She had to wait for the next return flight to Liverpool, five days later, and says she was not allowed her phone or a change of clothes.
Tracy told the Daily Mail: "I ran to customer services to ask them to search the plane, but they were in no hurry to look. I was worried that the plane would take off with my passport, but they didn't seem to care."
She spent five hours trying to get her passport before being led to an immigration room. She had time to message her daughter to explain what had happened before her phone was taken.
Ryanair said staff searched for her passport on the plane, but it couldn't be found. Tracy said border control said as she is no longer an EU citizen, thanks to Brexit, "they could only help me so much".
She said they told her they could give her documentation to return to the UK but she would have to fly back with Ryanair to the same airport. And that the next flight wasn't for five days.
Tracy said: "I begged them to let me fly to any airport at all, but they wouldn't let me. I was given a social worker who phoned the British consulate, but they said they couldn't do anything because 'it was the weekend'. I was stunned."
She waited in a windowless room with 30 other people. She washed her one set of clothes every night and hung them out to dry the next day.
"It was very distressing at first but I knew there was nothing I could do, so I remained as calm as possible. But you could see how other people were really upset," Tracy said.
The TV was broken and Tracy was given a book to read - about a woman in prison.
A Ryanair spokesperson told the Mirror: "The crew on this flight from Liverpool to Madrid (20 May) searched the aircraft for this passenger's lost passport, but it was not there.
"Any passenger travelling to Spain from a country outside the Schengen area must go through Passport Control, which is managed by the local authorities.
"While we regret this passenger's circumstance, it is beyond our control and is now a matter for the local Spanish authorities."
