A gran was held in a windowless room for five days after dropping her passport on a Ryanair flight from Liverpool to Spain. Tracy McKellar, 53, from the Wirral, Merseyside, was en route to her property in La Coronada, Extremadura, when it happened on May 20.
Ms McKellar wasn’t allowed a phone, her belongings or a change of clothes while she was detained in Madrid.
The live-in carer was handed over to border control officers after telling customer services staff what happened.
She was interviewed, led to a windowless room and told she couldn’t leave until the next available flight to Liverpool with the same airline.
But there wasn’t one for almost a week.
“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 said that to while away the time, she tried to teach English to some of the 30 people she was detained with.
Ms McKellar said: “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.”
She added that at one point a young man put his face up to hers as she lay on her bunk bed and said: “Hola, are you sleeping well?”
Ms McKellar said she swore at him and told an official to keep the man away from her.
Due to the fact she was on her way to her home in Spain, she had also packed light so had no change of clothes.
She said once she was allowed out of the immigration room, the accompanying police officer asked the pilot for permission to fly her home in what described as an “humiliating” exchange.
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.”
