One Colorado family was left fuming after Southwest Airlines lost their elderly mother for an entire day when she was supposed to fly in from New Jersey, CBS Denver recently reported.
A skycap was supposed to escort 85-year-old Alice Vaticano in a wheelchair to the gate when she arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport to visit her daughter in Denver. Vaticano's other daughter, who drove her to the airport, did not get permission to accompany her to the gate.
Instead of wheeling Vaticano to the plane, the skycap abandoned her and left her sitting alone for 11 hours.
"She pushed me there and left me," Vaticano, who has diabetes, told the station. "I was just sitting in a wheelchair." Vaticano said she "didn't even know where she was."
When her daughter, Donna Vaticano, didn't see her mother get off the plane at Denver International Airport, she flew into a panic.
"Where was she?" Donna told CBS Denver. "What happened to her? These are people's jobs. Who is supposed to be paying attention?"
Southwest Airlines released a statement admitting the mistake.
"A processing error in that check-in process did not alert our employees at the gate to her special need (wheelchair) in boarding the aircraft."
The airline also said that skycaps in Newark are workers who are assigned to help different airlines and are not employed by Southwest.
A Southwest official eventually realized the woman had been abandoned and placed her on a flight to Denver via Chicago, according to the station. They also gave Alice two $100 travel vouchers for her troubles.
But her daughter is not satisfied.
"I want answers. What the heck happened?" Donna told CBS Denver.
When asked what went through her mind when she was abandoned, Alice said she was afraid "that I would sit in Newark forever."
