An elderly couple heading home to Baltimore from Bermuda were left behind at the airport when their US Airways flight took off without them.John and Francis Ward were told to wait for assistance to board the plane to Philadelphia as Mrs Ward was in a wheelchair but the flight attendant who promised to help her never returned. Mr Ward, 85, eventually went to find a member of staff and was told the plane had left and that “the attendant had forgotten us”.“I think it was more of a setback for my wife,” he told The Royal Gazette yesterday. “She is not that well and it was quite a turmoil for her to go through.”He plans to report the incident to the US Department of Homeland Security, as he claims it raises disturbing questions about the airline's boarding procedures.Mr and Mrs Ward have been coming to the Island at least once a year for the last 19 years to visit daughter Jo-Ann Pully, of Paget. They arrived here for Christmas on December 16 and should have left on December 28, when mother-of-two Mrs Pully took them to LF Wade International Airport well before the two-hour check-in requirement.She said: “They checked in at the counter, where their bags were weighed, and my mom was given access to a wheelchair. We said our goodbyes and off they went or so I thought.“Several hours later we received a call hoping it was from my parents saying they had arrived at their destination. But no my mother and father were still at the Bermuda airport.”Retired businessman and schools' superintendent Mr Ward said he and his wife, 83, a retired librarian, were taken to a seating area to wait for the delayed flight after going through US Customs.“About two hours after we were seated, a lady came in and introduced herself and said she would be responsible for bringing us to the plane. [She said] I should remain in my seat and she would return to take us to our departure.“She repeated it twice to me: ‘do not leave the waiting area'. After about a half hour, approximately, I said ‘well, what's taking her so long?'.”He went to the US Airways counter, where he was told the plane had departed.He asked to see a manager who “indicated that he was very sorry that the event occurred but that the attendant had forgotten us”.The couple was offered a hotel for the night but declined and were given travel vouchers to get to their daughter's home and back to the airport for the same flight the following day.Their baggage was already on its way to Baltimore and they were left overnight with a tiny amount of hand luggage and none of their own toiletries.Mr Ward described the mistake as “outrageous” and said he was most concerned about the security issues it raised.“Beyond our personal outrage was a fear that anyone could have boarded that plane, apparently. Our boarding passes had been taken from us. Were they used?“Was someone in our seats? If there was no one in the seats, why wasn't there a last call or something?“It just raises all kinds of questions and makes you a little leery about the procedures there at the airport.”Mrs Pully, development manager at PartnerRe, said: “These are people in their mid-80s. They were understandably very upset. After all these years, they deserve much better treatment.”Airline spokesman Derek Hanna said: “US Airways regrets not being able to accommodate Francis and John Ward on their originally scheduled flight and we apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.“We were able to accommodate the Wards on the next available flight and booked them in our first class cabin. Our customer relations staff is reaching out to the Wards.”A Department of Airport Operations spokesman said it was an airline matter and the airport had little information to act on.“Airport Operations regrets the inconvenience caused to these passengers and has requested an official report from US Airways on why the flight departed without the two passengers onboard.”