A WILTSHIRE man stranded in Ghana is desperately trying to organise a flight home with British Airways.

Dominic Bride, 24, of Bradford Road, Atworth, went to Ghana in January to work for an international charity helping to improve sanitation and water facilities.

He responded to Foreign Office advice to come home immediately because of the coronavirus but has been unable to get a British Airways flight back to the UK because the airline keeps on cancelling.

He was due to board a British Airways flight to Heathrow on Monday, but by the time he arrived at Accra’s Kotoka International Airport, the flight had been cancelled with no explanation.

Mr Bride's mother Katrina, 59, said: "My son, Dominic has been working for a British-run NGO, Dream Big Ghana, which invests in local communities in the Volta region in the south of the country.

"He is now unable to leave, despite Foreign Office warnings that the country could become unstable if the coronavirus pandemic outstrips the country’s health system.

"While BA continues to advertise its flights as running to schedule, all calls to the airline yield no consistent information as day by day confusion within the international travel sector mounts."

Mr Bride said: "I have been trying to get home to the UK since the Foreign & Commonwealth Office first posted its advice to leave Ghana in the early hours of Friday morning.

"I had a ticket for a BA flight which should have left last night but the flight was cancelled four hours before take-off. The airline changes its story every time I make contact with them, so I don’t know when they’re going to get people like me home.”

Regular BA flights between Ghanaian capital Accra and London appear to have been suspended.

Mrs Bride added: "While the British High Commission in Accra continues to hold the line that British nationals are at risk if they stay in Ghana, it seems powerless to facilitate their repatriation."

At home in Wiltshire, Dominic’s family and friends are pulling out all the stops to get him back.

Mr Bride's girlfriend Ruby Gwilliam has been phoning the Foreign Office in London, while other family members have contacted BA.

Mrs Bride added: “We are in an information black hole. “The Foreign Office phone line is never answered and the airline refers us to the airport in Accra.

"The airport in Accra has told us it is open to any scheduled flights wishing to leave the country, so why isn’t British Airways running flights?

"If British nationals are stranded in a country which is deemed to be in danger of becoming unstable, why is the Foreign Office not getting them home now?”