A 72-year-old man was rescued by police after getting lost amidst winter travel chaos.

Airport news for Heathrow,Travel on 27/12/2010.

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A 72-year-old grandfather had to be rescued by the police after he got lost while attempting to drive home from Gatwick. The man, Mohammed Bellazrak, had dropped his wife at Gatwick airport after her flight was switched from Heathrow.

Over the following three days, he ended up driving some 3,200kms as heavy snow left many routes blocked. It should have taken him only 2.5 hours to drive the 193kms home from Gatwick but Mr Bellazrak was behind the wheel for 66 hours, driving through towns like High Wycombe, Bracknell and Burnham.

Mr Bellazrak had left home in Wiltshire to drive his wife to Heathrow. She was scheduled to jet off to Morocco to visit her family. Because of the wintry weather, her flight was switched from Heathrow to Gatwick. Video footage from CCTV cameras shows Mr Bellazrak departing Gatwick airport around 8pm on Thursday.

Mr Bellazrak was carrying cold weather supplies with him, he had left his diabetes medicine and mobile phone at home. After he failed to come back home, his family contacted the police.

The Thames Valley Police got in touch with other police forces but they could not find Mr Bellazrak. Police then used their automatic number plate recognition computer (ANPR), which found Mr Bellazrak had driven in towns in Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

Mr Bellazrak told the press he had asked for directions several times but nobody could help him. It was not until the afternoon of Christmas Day that police found him. At 2pm, the ANPR in a patrol car Oxford found Mr Bellazrak’s number plate in Oxford.

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