Hundreds of holiday-goers have been left hit by hours of delays and stuck 1,200 miles from their destination after their flight from Manchester was suddenly cancelled. Passengers on the easyJet flight to Antalya this morning, Friday (August 28), were told to leave the runway 'ten minutes' before their flight was due to depart as the pilot was unfit to fly due to 'fatigue'.
Delays and Diversion
Following a wait of more than four hours, passengers, who were originally due to depart at 7.45am, eventually took off to their holiday destination at around 12pm after a replacement crew was found, the Manchester Evening News understands.
However, when in the air, passengers say the new pilot informed them that he needed to divert to Milan, as the staff couldn't legally carry on working as the crew had reached its duty-time limit. Passengers from the plane, which they said largely consisted of families with young children, were taken to Milan Airport - over 1,200 miles from their destination. They have been given a €25 food voucher while they wait for their new crew to arrive, apparently coming from Manchester Airport to meet them at around 7.30 local time (6.30pm GMT).
Passenger Ordeal
James Lanson, who has been travelling with his wife and two-year-old daughter since this morning, spoke to the Manchester Evening News as they waited for their latest replacement flight. "It's been unbelievably difficult with our toddler," he said. "She hasn't eaten, she can't understand what's going on. There's no facilities in this airport for her or any of the other kids. I used to work as a prison officer and the prison that I used to work in kept the prisoners in better condition.
"We got on the coach, drove to the airplane and pulled up next to it and the doors didn't open. The bus driver said the pilot had called in sick and that he was gonna have to take us back to the airport. So me, being a scouser, I thought it was a little bit of humour and he was gonna say he was joking and tell us to have a good holiday. But no, he drove us back to the terminal and they said they were trying to source us a new pilot.
"We were due to get there at 12pm. We thought we'd get there nice and early and have a full day there today. So it's a great start to the holiday, which was meant to be seven days and is now going to be six days."
Conflicting Explanations
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News from Milan Airport, he said that easyJet staff then told passengers the delay was due to weather conditions and air traffic control restrictions. He said: "I've been looking at Flight Radar and planes have been landing in Antalya all day, so I don't know where this thing with this problem with the weather has come from. I guess if weather was the issue we would have never been taken out. Whether they're just saying that so they don't have to pay us compensation because it's out of their control, I don't know.
"But a Jet2 flight took off just before ours was due to leave and that's landed in Antalya a couple of hours ago. And we've just seen our old crew leave five minutes ago and get on a flight home. Which is great, while we're stuck here. They've given us a €25 voucher but the only place you can use it in this really small, tiny airport is a Pret. I think I've gone back about five or six times since we landed, so in three hours, and the queue's enormous and it's not moving. It's a sh**show. We've been told the crew that are coming to fly our plane to take us to Antalya are coming from Manchester. No one's given us any information. All they've done is given us a voucher."
He added that his two-year-old hasn't eaten since 8am and that the Pret has been running out of food.
Airline Statement
EasyJet say that the flight was delayed due to air traffic control restrictions caused by adverse weather across Europe and that the delay would have pushed the crew to exceed their legally permitted hours, so a stop in Milan was arranged to replace the crew. The aircraft will be refuelled and the flight will then continue onto Antalya, the Manchester Evening News understands.
A spokesperson for easyJet said: "We are sorry for any inconvenience this will have caused and did all we could to minimise the impact of the disruption. The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is always easyJet’s highest priority."
