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| The septuagenarian went missing after flying in from Frankfurt |
All’s well that ends well.
A 70-year-old
woman reported missing at Hong Kong International Airport yesterday afternoon while
traveling alone, was found after a few hours, and put on her connecting flight
to Cebu this morning.
Emily Munch, a
former Filipino citizen who already holds a German passport, was reported
missing by relatives after she was last seen at HK airport at 3:30 pm
yesterday, Monday.
According to Lean
Genesis, who said she’s a niece of Munch, her aunt was supposed to take a
connecting flight to the Philippines, but when they spoke with her after she
landed in Hong Kong, she became confused and kept saying she was still in
Frankfurt, where she had come from.
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| Basahin ang detalye! |
She had by then missed
her connecting flight, so her family rebooked her on another flight. But after
this, her family could no longer reach her as her phone registered as being “out
of service.”
“The airport has also been paging her name,
but so far there have been no signs of her,” said Lean in a Facebook post.
Frantic with
worry, her family members turned to social media for help in tracking Munch
down. The SUN was also contacted via messenger for assistance.
The news also
reached the Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong, but upon checking, Vice
Consul Gino Soriano who heads the assistance to nationals section, found out
that Munch was already a German citizen and did not retain her Philippine
passport.
Still, the
Consulate tried to help, but advised Munch’s relatives to also ask assistance “from
the concerned German embassy or consulate in future cases.”
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| It was the first time Munch was stricken with memory loss, says her niece |
In her appeal for help,
Lean said of her aunt: “She may be
confused due to dementia/memory loss and may not know that she is in Hong Kong,”
said Lean.
“Please do not leave
her alone if you find her, and if possible, contact Hong Kong Police or airport
staff and let them know that she is a vulnerable/confused traveller.”
“Our whole family
is extremely worried and just wants to get her safely back home.”
When asked by some
netizens why her elderly aunt was allowed to travel alone, Lean said Munch had “no
signs of dementia at all,” and it happened only after she landed in Hong Kong.
Had they known
that she had this condition, they would not have let her travel alone, said
Lean.
Then at about 9am
today, Lean posted in a Facebook group that her aunt had been found.
“All good na po! Nakasakay na po siya
papuntang Cebu. Tumawag na yung Cathay Pacific. Maraming salamat sa mga
tumulong. At sa lahat ng nag kuda.” (It’s all good. She is already on a
flight to Cebu. Cathay Pacific has called us. Thank you to everyone who helped.
And all those who vented their ire).
She no longer
responded to questions on how her aunt was found, or what transpired during the
nearly six hours that she could not be contacted.
