Forgotten passenger sees the funny side
Airline leaves 93-year-old stranded at Valencia
RED-FACED airline EasyJet 'was full of apologies' after leaving pensioner Ray Fear behind at Valencia airport - patiently waiting at the departure lounge’s assisted passenger station.
The retired Grenadier Guardsman, who was travelling from Jávea to Luton, said it resulted in a 10 hour stay at the airport but he enjoyed another adventure as 'mayhem and panic' broke out.
The father of 10 and married four times, Ray, 93, said the fact the plane took off without him asked questions of the airline’s computer systems - and its security.
And he said as staff desperately tried to rectify the error and reunite him with his daughter - waiting to meet him at Luton - he missed a flight to Heathrow and finally travelled to Gatwick.
“What a laugh, I didn’t worry, I am a guardsman - but when they realised they had forgotten me, it was panic stations,” Ray said.
“When you think about it, it was something I would not have missed - another experience, another adventure. It didn’t upset me; I didn’t shout and bawl, I just laughed it off.”
Ray, who has lived in Javea for 30 years, was travelling back to England for a family reunion in May. At Valencia, he was 'wheeled' through security into departures to the assistance point.
“They said the flight was delayed for two hours and it could be longer but said not to worry and they would be back for me half an hour before take off,” he said. “I sat and read 80 pages of my book - the most I have read in my life in a single day.
“They came back six hours later and asked why I was still there - I said I was flying to Luton and they said it was long gone.
“Panic stations all round! They said they would fix me up with a flight to Heathrow but I missed that because everyone was running around signing this and that.
Flight
“They then said there was a flight to Gatwick, I finally got on that although they charged me for it - they said I wouldn’t fly unless I paid - and I would get my money back later.”
He said daughter Lara, who lives in Uxbridge, drove from Luton to Gatwick to meet him. “I have never seen her look so beautiful - we had a little cuddle she said she had been waiting at airports for eight hours and I was the best looking man to come through!”
However, it took an English national newspaper’s help before Ray was able to get a refund from the budget airline; another battle for the veteran.
“Getting through to customer services was almost impossible and the fact they left me behind apparently does not go on their computer records - they didn’t answer at all until The Sun got hold of it and that put the wind up them a bit.”
Ray’s latest adventure was too late to be included in his 2005 autobiography ‘Pawn Shop Dick’ - a colourful tale of his experiences as a pawn broker’s assistant, soldier, bookmaker and a main agent for Vernon’s Pools.
Still available through Amazon, a copy was sent to Buckingham
Palace and Ray received a letter of thanks back from the Queen - it also won glowing reviews, including in the pages of CBNews.
Ray said his father nicknamed him ‘Pawn Shop Dick’ when he left school at 13 to work in a Brighton pawn shop. His father was also a Guard who was wounded at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898, badly injured by a warrior’s spear, he later served as a ‘Beefeater’ at the Tower of London.
The connection allowed Ray to join the Grenadier Guards to serve in the Second World War he remembers at five feet 10 inches, he was always one of the shortest soldiers on parade.
Ray, who said he has enjoyed 'a wonderful life' but is open to a fifth marriage, revealed he still has one ambition. “It is to be the last surviving guardsman from World War Two and to have a state funeral, attended by the Queen.”