Pilot's frustration at hotel quarantine during family bereavement

Capt Ryan Harris said he felt "absolutely hopeless" while in isolation as his wife dealt with the fall-out from her mother's death

A pilot has described his fury at being forced to stay in quarantine despite his father-in-law going missing following the death of his wife.

Capt Ryan Harris, from Worcester, returned to the UK from Qatar after the death of his mother-in-law.

While having to quarantine at a hotel, his father-in-law went missing and Capt Harris asked if he could help in the search.

The Department for Heath and Social Care turned his request down.

A spokesperson said all exceptional circumstance requests are "carefully considered" and teams "always try to balance the needs of the person applying with our top priority of protecting the public".

Capt Harris said he was "climbing the walls" at being unable to help his family and the coastguard look for Bob Cuthbertson.

Mr Cuthbertson's car was found next to a disused quarry on Holyhead mountain a few days after he disappeared and the family believe the 82-year-old, "distraught with grief", took his own life.

Capt Harris said he "felt absolutely hopeless" in his hotel room.

"My wife was distraught, she just needed me there," he said. "She'd just buried her mother two weeks previously and now she's just lost her father."

His mother-in-law Anne Cuthbertson, who lived in Holyhead, Anglesey, died in June after being diagnosed with cancer.

Bob Cuthbertson went missing weeks after his wife of 50 years, Anne, died

Capt Harris returned to the UK from red-listed Qatar, where he works at a flying academy, landing at London Heathrow on 17 July.

As a pilot, he believed he was exempt from quarantine, but was told at the airport he had to quarantine at a hotel in Kensington.

In this time, Capt Harris received a call from his wife, Victoria, telling him his father-in-law was not answering any calls.

He contacted the Department of Health and Social Care to lodge an appeal on compassionate grounds and was told by hotel staff at the hotel he could expect a response within 24 hours.

Despite repeated attempts to contact the department he did not hear any further information until seven hours before his 10-day isolation period was over, when his request was turned down.

A search operation is ongoing to find Mr Cuthbertson, pictured with his daughters Victoria and Zandra

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He slammed the time it took to assess his case, which he said had kept himself and his family "hopeful".

While it would not comment on Capt Harris' individual case, the DHSC said: "Quarantine measures are minimising the risk of variants coming into the UK and safeguarding the hard-won progress of our vaccination programme.

"These decisions can be difficult and we regularly review the policy on exceptional circumstances and the handling of individual requests to ensure we learn lessons and improve the service."