British woman ‘stuck on plane on runway for six hours’published at 13:52 British Summer Time 29 April
James Kelly
BBC News
Rebecca Berry, 22, from
Hampshire, is stuck in the Canary Islands after her flight yesterday was
cancelled, despite reassurances it would not be affected by the power cut in Spain and Portugal.
This was her first holiday abroad – a trip to
Tenerife to celebrate a friend’s birthday – but the five-night trip has already
become a six-night stay.
Rebecca says her original flight was due to fly out at 18:50 local time yesterday, with passengers boarded onto the plane on time.
“We waited 30 minutes for
an update, and they told us we were now delayed by an hour as our time slot had
moved for some reason,” she says.
“At that point, they
handed out a small packet of biscuits and a cup of water to everyone.”
But passengers were then told the ground crew had missed the flight’s slot, so it couldn’t taxi to the runway.
Despite reassurances it would take off, passengers “started getting angry and hungry” after three hours on the plane, she says.
“We were told they cannot
give us food as they are not in the air. Newborn babies did not have enough
formula,” she adds.
“After nearly six hours,
we were told the flight is cancelled due to the airspace being closed, not
enough fuel to go over Africa, and the crew being over on their flight hours so
we could not go an alternative route.”
Finally making it to a hotel room organised by the airline at 02:30 local time, Rebecca says she was unable to find out when her flight would be rescheduled.
She says the group was meant to be picked up at 11:30 today to go to the airport – and are “hoping for the best now”.
Image source, HANDOUT