A FURIOUS mother says she was interrogated by Turkish border control after her son was allowed on a plane to Turkey with an expired passport.

Wickford mother Jade Tucker was set for a dream week-long holiday with her eight-year-old son Riley and mother Heather.

The trio set off for Antalya, Turkey, on Friday morning departing on a Wizz Air flight from Luton Airport.

However, unbeknownst to Ms Tucker, 29, her son’s passport had expired and when they landed in the Turkish coastal city, she and her son were whisked away for questioning.

Gazette: Excited - Jade Tucker, Riley and Heather the morning of their flightExcited - Jade Tucker, Riley and Heather the morning of their flight (Image: Jade Tucker)

“I’ll put my hands up and admit to my mistake,” Ms Tucker said.

“I should have realised children’s passports expire after five years, but I think it is just absolutely awful that nobody noticed on the way out meaning we flew all the way out there before being questioned by police."

“It was the most stressful thing I have ever been through,” she added.

“At one point they were insisting they had to send my son back alone, but thankfully we ended up being sent back together.”

Ms Tucker checked in online before she says she went through two passport checks at the airport – handled by agency staff employed by the airline, according to a spokesman for Luton Airport.

“I'm furious this was missed by everyone. This was one of the worst experiences of my life, I cannot explain how upsetting it was,” she said.

“My son has a different last name, so we got extra aggro in Turkey as it wasn’t easy to prove he was my child.

“After some intense questioning, we were bundled back onto the next plane back to Luton but there was no food and we hadn’t eaten all day,” she claimed.

"They also wanted to do security checks when we got back to Luton to check who he was which once again was very stressful.”

She added: “My son has been beside himself since it all happened and is terrified of flying now.”

When approached for comment, a spokesman for Wizz Air claimed its staff do not check passports, adding “this is the responsibility of border control and the airport staff at the check-in desk or gate.”

A Luton Airport spokesman denied the checks were their responsibility, claiming: “As passport and entry document checks are the responsibility of the carrier, this would be a matter for the airline.”