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- A mother pleaded with an airport security guard over the phone to take care of her teenage son.
- Ainsley Ashton’s daughter was left alone at Doha airport after her flight was cancelled.
- She was stuck at the airport for 24 hours after being “forgotten” at the transfer desk.
Ainsley Ashton’s 16-year-old daughter was detained overnight at an airport more than 3,000 miles away while traveling from Africa to London.
The teenager was flying unaccompanied from Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to Heathrow via Doha, Qatar on August 28.
The flights are operated by British Airways with the Doha-Kilimanjaro legs by its Qatari codeshare partner. Insider confirmed the itinerary from travel documents.
After the flight from Doha to London was cancelled, the teenager told her mother and went to the transfer desk. She was told she would get on the next flight but was later told to leave without her. “She forgot,” her mother said.
The 16-year-old arrived in Doha around 5pm and was left alone with the transfer desk after that first exchange, Ashton told Insider.
“No one talked to her. They knew because she reported herself to the transfer desk and then she left. They put her in the transfer office and they all packed up and left her at the airport.”
At 5:30am, the only person in the airport was a sleeping security guard. Ashton tells her son to wake him up so she can talk to him on the phone. “At this point, obviously, I was like, please take care of my baby, please take care of my baby,” she said.
Ashton didn’t understand the situation except that she was a teenager alone in the airport.
She continued to call Qatar’s customer service, but was told that a manager would be on duty after 8am.
Once she was able to speak to a manager, Ashton’s daughter was put on the next flight to Heathrow. The experience left her son “traumatised” and she fears the experience “destroyed his confidence”.
The teenager went to Africa to volunteer for the International Volunteer Headquarters, working in schools and visiting orphanages.
British Airways and Qatar did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.
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