Twenty hour delay for Coventry airport passengers
26.04.06
Angry passengers today told of a nightmare ordeal which left them stranded at Coventry airport for 20 hours when they should have been enjoying themselves in Portugal. Ninety passengers expecting to fly out from the airport on Monday were five hours late taking off after a series of technical problems. But an hour into their journey, the plane had to return to Coventry because of yet another hitch.
Passengers were told they wouldn't be able to fly out again until Tuesday afternoon. And the final straw came when they were offered a room at an airport hotel - but only if they shared with a complete stranger.
The travellers on the low-cost airline Thomsonfly's flight TOM 6963 should have flown to Faro in Portugal at 16:40 on Monday. The flight was delayed until 17:10 because of 'a technical problem'. At 18:15 passengers were told the fault could not be fixed and another plane was coming from Bournemouth to take them and they would fly out at 21:00.
However, when the replacement plane arrived it had a problem too. This was fixed and at 22:20 the plane took off. An hour into the flight there was yet another technical problem and the plane turned around to go back to Coventry Airport.
The passengers arrived at 00:30 and were told if they did not live locally and could not get home they would be put up in a hotel. But they were told there were only 20 rooms for the remaining 40 passengers - meaning that some strangers had to share rooms.
A Thomsonfly spokeswoman said: 'This is a very rare situation and all of our aircraft undergo rigorous technical checks regularly, but the safety of our passengers and crew is the top priority. The decision was to overnight the passengers in an hotel and we will ensure they get to their final destination as soon as is possible.'
'Thomsonfly does recognise this is a frustrating time for all concerned and we are doing everything we can to make sure customers are as comfortable as possible.'
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