How could airport and airline staff miss an elderly woman with hearing problems in a wheelchair, left sitting there after the gate emptied?

My disabled 84-year-old mother was due to return to the UK on a Ryanair flight after visiting me in Germany. I had booked ­special assistance to help her on to the plane.

After I’d checked her in, assistance staff pushed her wheelchair to the departure gate and told her they would return to help her to her seat on the aircraft once boarding commenced.