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87-year-old woman stranded at airport

Imagine your mother in her 80's stranded for long hours at a strange airport while on her way here to Western New York. It happened to a local family. They shared their story of a very delayed journey with Channel 2's Tipline. 

Buffalo, NY - Imagine your mother in her 80's stranded for long hours at a strange airport while on her way here to Western New York. It happened to a local family. They shared their story of a very delayed journey with Channel 2's Tipline.

Kitty Koscielny is a spry 87 years young lady who made sure she was early at Buffalo Niagara Airport for her return flight to Florida. on Tuesday morning. It was a flight up north for a grandson's graduation and other family events.

But it was a flight she'll never forget. Things went wrong with flight weather delays and cancellations on June 21st for her connecting American Airlines flight at Reagan National Airport in Washington. When the terminal closed for the night , because of her age and balance issues, she was taken in a wheelchair to an unsecured part of the airport to stay overnight. But in the morning she had to get back to her departure gate and no one was ready to push her there. Kitty says "I kept asking people that worked there...how do I get a pusher to get me where I'm supposed to go...they kept saying it's not my department."

Kitty says she actually walked part of the way herself and finally got to the right terminal gate with what she says was her valid boarding pass. But she then says confused airline employees didn't get her on the right plane for her connection to Buffalo. She was obviously frustrated "I said you forgot me again. I said how could you do that to me. That's when I lost my composure. Then I started to cry. I really got upset."

Also upset...daughter Cynthia here in Western New York. Her reaction "Panic...she's stranded at Reagan Airport. Granted there's a weather issue. Nobody from the airline knew where they put these people".

There was cell phone contact with Kitty. But also five hours of calls that Cynthia made to the airline to check on her mother which she actually logged. She says those calls were either transferred to the airport... which in turn transferred them back to the airline... or she was just disconnected. Cynthia says "Nobody wanted to help you. Nobody was reaching out. Her ticket specified wheelchair assistance. So it was up to them to get her to where she needed to be and make sure she was on that plane."

An American Airlines spokeswoman told 2 On Your Side they are looking into the situation and will investigate how the airline's wheelchair vendor at Reagan National handled this. Overall they do apologize for what happened to Kitty Koscielny.

So 28 hours after she was scheduled to arrive in Buffalo, Kitty did make it here for her visit. But she was obviously exhausted and upset.

Kitty did give us an update, and told us that the airline is giving her a full refund.

Daughter Cynthia says she may also write a letter to the FAA to complain about what happened to her 87 year old mother.

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