What was supposed to be a relaxing return journey home ended in an emotional rollercoaster for Annelies Lens from Waalwijk. The woman who suffered from Achilles tendonitis? is in a wheelchair, was simply forgotten by the ground staff at Gran Canaria airport on Monday evening.
While her flight to Amsterdam was ready to depart, she was still sitting with her husband at the gate at Schiphol waiting for assistance. Only because her friends raised the alarm could the plane be stopped in time.
“We had to stand there. And wait. And wait some more.”
The problem started at check-in. “We arrived around five past four and had to wait immediately at the side,” says Annelies. Her flight was scheduled to depart at ten to five. “Because I was in a wheelchair, the others had to be helped first. Then our papers were taken, checked in and returned immediately.”
After saying goodbye to her friends, the long wait began. “We had to stand there. And wait. And wait some more.”
Five minutes before the scheduled departure time, she asks the staff how many people are still missing for the flight. “’Two,’ they said. We thought that was strange, but thought these people were still having a drink somewhere. No one seemed to notice that that was us.”
“That was a really strange sight.”
It wasn’t until around five o’clock that a bell rang among the airport staff. “Then I was taken downstairs in the wheelchair and put in the van. But two more planes had to taxi, so we were already much too late. When we arrived at the plane, someone was waving that the plane could already take off. That was a really strange sight.”
In the meantime, there was confusion on the TUI plane. Her friends, who had boarded earlier, noticed that the seats in front of them remained empty. “My girlfriend said to a flight attendant: ‘Something is wrong here, my girlfriend is not there.’ But on board they thought everyone had already gotten in, while I was still outside waiting for the taxi.”
When Annelies arrived at the plane, it already seemed too late. “All the doors were closed, the stairs were gone. It was as if they wanted to leave at any moment.” Thanks to the alarm raised by her friends, the purser was alerted. He had the stairs reconnected and personally brought Annelies inside. “He immediately said that it was not my fault, but that something had gone wrong downstairs. I really liked that.”
“I kept thinking: it’s me.”
Although she had done nothing wrong, Annelies felt bad. “I kept thinking: it’s my fault, everyone has to wait because of my wheelchair. But of course that wasn’t the case.” The atmosphere in the aircraft itself then slowly became lighter. “At some point the tension subsides. And I quickly forget things. But of course I had never experienced this before.”
Looking back, Annelies is clear: “It is a big mistake that you check in people, see them waiting, and then not realize that those same people are the ones you are missing on the plane. That is actually not possible.”
Yet relief prevails. “Thanks to my friends, I was not left behind. If they had not said anything, the plane would have left without us. And that would have been very painful.”