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Mum and threeyear-old stranded in German airport

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Published date22 December 2020
Date22 December 2020
Publication titleEvening Chronicle
As of midnight on Sunday, flights from the UK to parts of Europe were banned amid fears over a new strain of coronavirus said to be spread even easier than the COVID-19 strain.

Sarah Bridgewood and her three-yearold daughter Sofia, from West Denton, Newcastle, arrived at Hanover Airport well before the midnight ban came into force.

However, when they landed, they were not allowed to leave the airport and were asked to have a COVID test.

The mum and daughter had already had Fit to Fly tests at Newcastle Airport, costing £100 each, and they were negative. But they were still asked to have another test in Hanover and were told to remain in the terminal until they were given the all-clear.

As a result, they spent the night at Hanover Airport and slept on a folding bed provided to passengers.

They were finally allowed to leave 13 hours later, after the results showed they did not have COVID.

Sarah, 37, a teaching assistant, explained that she travelled to Germany to visit her parents for Christmas and was planning to return to the UK in the New Year.

They were originally due to fly from Newcastle Airport with KLM on Sunday morning but that flight was cancelled. They then managed to find seats on a British Airways flight and travelled to Germany via Heathrow, arriving in Hannover at around 6.30pm on Sunday.

Sarah said: "Everything on the flight was fine but everything changed when we landed in Germany. The information was poor and was coming in dribs and drabs.

"There were around 60 people on the plane, some with babies. We spent easily one hour just waiting to disembark.

"The pilot said the German authorities had informed him that if we wanted to disembark we would all have to agree to a 10-day quarantine and we had to do a COVID test. We all agreed, that wasn't a problem.

"We ended up being greeted by the police at the terminal. We had to give our details and tell them where we were staying and were told we needed to have a test there and then.

"We had already taken Fit to Fly tests at...

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