Wheelchair-bound woman stranded after being bumped from flight

A man is searching for answers as to why his 77-year-old, wheelchair-bound mother was, according to his account, bumped from a United Airlines flight to London and left stranded at New Jersey's Newark airport for 12 hours.

Stephen Williams told WUSA he dropped off his mother at Ronald Reagan Airport with the understanding that 'United had employees that would ensure his mother made it to London'.

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However hours later Williams said he got a text from a taxi driver in London who was supposed to pick up his mother, saying that she hadn't arrived.

He then called the airline multiple times to check if she had been on the flight and was repeatedly assured she was on the plane.

He soon after found out that his mother had made it to Newark but then United had bumped her off the connecting flight to London.

She then had to sit in the airport for 12 hours because even though United offered her a hotel, it was far away and she had no way of getting there.

United said: "This never should have happened and we have spoken with our customer's family to apologise.

"We are working with out team and our wheelchair assistance vendor at Newark to review what happened and to prevent this from happening again."