By Telegraph Reporters
Copyright yahoo
A British woman has been deported from Morocco after Ryanair staff prevented her from retrieving her passport from a plane seat.
Rebecca McCurry, 22, had arrived in Marrakech with three friends and disembarked the plane when she realised that she had left the travel document behind.
Ryanair staff reportedly told her that after “sweeping the plane” they could see no sign of the passport, but passengers on the return flight later found the document.
Ms McCurry, a nanny from Lochgilphead in Scotland, was deported to Manchester Airport after 11 hours and questioning by border guards.
The tourist claims it took another month of chasing after the incident in July to retrieve her passport.
Ryanair admitted that the passenger “misplaced her passport onboard” and was “correctly denied entry to the country”.
Ms McCurry said: “Keeping my passport on me is my responsibility, obviously. But I was away from it for five minutes before I realised.
“I told a member of airport staff and they said it wasn’t a problem, and they’d let the people from Ryanair know. I said I was happy to get it myself, but they wouldn’t let me back on the plane.
“As time went on, I started to get a bit panicky. Then a staff member for Ryanair came back and said they searched the whole plane but it wasn’t there. I just knew that was impossible.”
‘I did not feel like a person at all’
Ms McCurry said she was taken into questioning by border guards, adding: “Honestly it was terrifying. I did not feel like a person at all. It was just insane.”
She claimed that after three hours of questioning she decided to tell them she had spoken to an immigration lawyer.
“I lied. I don’t have an immigration lawyer. But after I told them that they put me on the plane immediately,” she said, adding: “They deported me to Manchester and my dad drove six hours to come and get me.”
Ms McCurry happened to know a person who was on the return flight to Edinburgh and was able to retrieve her passport from the plane.
She said: “My friend’s family were on the plane going back and they found it. It was exactly where I left it. I told them to just keep a hold of it. But Ryanair staff took it off them.
“Then I spent over a month trying to get in touch with [Ryanair]. In the end I had to go to the airport myself and pay £30 to get my passport back.”
A spokesman for Ryanair said: “This passenger misplaced their passport onboard their flight from Edinburgh to Marrakech on the 31 July and subsequently was denied entry into Marrakech.
“As requested by Marrakech authorities, Ryanair re-accommodated this passenger onto the next available flight to the UK later that day.”
They added: “In this case the passenger was required to present a passport upon arrival at Marrakech Airport which they failed to do, and they were correctly denied entry to the country.
“Ryanair hands over all lost property to the lost and found office at each airport. Once the crew located this passenger’s passport, this passenger’s passport was handed over to lost property at Edinburgh Airport.”
The Office National des Aéroports in Morocco was contacted for comment.
