United Airlines Left 77-Year-Old Woman Stranded In Wheel Chair

A 77 year-old-woman was stranded in a wheelchair for hours at the Newark Airport in New Jersey after United Airlines bumped her from her flight on London.

Steven Williams said that he dropped his wheelchair-bound mother at the Ronald Reagan National Airport in Virginia, where she was flying to New Jersey as a layover en route to London. Williams told WUSA, a Washington D.C. based CBS affiliate, that his mother travels in a wheelchair and is easily confused.

“They assist people in wheelchairs and get someone to wheel them through and basically take responsibility for that person until they arrive at their destination,” Williams told WUSA Wednesday.

Williams left his mother in the care of United Airlines. Hours later the driver who Williams had hired to pick his mother up in London texted him she had not arrived. Instead, she was stranded at her gate in New Jersey for several hours after getting bumped from her flight.

“I got a text at 4:30 in the morning saying she hadn't arrived. I called the airline to make sure she was on the flight and they reassured me three or four times she was on that flight,” Williams said to WUSA. “Basically she was left at the gate for 12 hours. They offered her a hotel that was miles away. She had to get there on her own steam. There's no way my mom could have pushed a wheelchair at her age, so she sat there.”

United issued a statement Tuesday and according to Williams, issued him an apology and offered his mother a $1,000 flight voucher.

“This never should have happened and we have spoken with our customer's family to apologize. We are working with our team and our wheelchair assistance vendor at Newark to review what happened and to prevent this from happening again,” said United in a statement.

United released a second statement to the Daily Mail Wednesday.

“While we offered our customer a hotel and to take her there, she declined our offer of assistance,” said the statement. “We have since spoken with our customer’s family to express our sincere apologies and we are working with our team at Newark to review what happened and to ensure we learn from this incident.”