Shocking! Passengers of TUI Airways flight to London get stranded at Maine for 17 hours; here's why
The report added that due to this, the passengers were stranded in a 'warzone' at a Maine airport for over 17 hours.
The incident took place on 8 July, report NYP, adding, this irked passengers who had no option but to wait for 17 hours at Maine airport due to an unplanned layover. 'Everybody was fed up,' NYP quoted UK native Terry Lawrance as saying to Southwest News Service.
Within an hour of taking off from Mexico's Cancun, the pilot of the TUI Airways flight came on the intercom and announced that two passengers had been 'smoking in the toilet' and he'd have to make an unscheduled landing if they persisted.
Recounting the incident, Lawrence said that the pair refused to desist and prompted the captain to put his money where his mouth was.
'About three hours later, around the border with Canada and he came on to let us know that the plane was being diverted to Bangor, Maine,' said Lawrence.
Right after entering Canadian airspace, flight tracking data on Flightradar24 depicted the plane turning back towards Maine.
When the flight landed around 9:30 pm (local time) at Maine, the two smokers were escorted off the plane. 'They were obviously drunk, and he basically assaulted his partner,' recalled Lawrance.
After this, the pilot told the passengers that they would soon take off after some paperwork was done. But nobody knew their short pitstop would turn into the layover from hell.
'We were sat on the plane on the ground for five hours — the plane started taxing again and we thought 'great' and then they said there was a problem with flight plan, and we have to get off. Next thing, we're not going anywhere,' he said.
Lawrance added that the original crew had to deplane since they couldn't work the rest of the leg back to Gatwick, since they would be exceeding their legal working hours.
To sort this issue, a relief flight had to be dispatched from the UK to the US to ferry them to their destination.
In the meantime, the passengers had to disembark and stay in a cramped lounge while waiting for the relief flight to arrive.
Describing their temporary digs, Lawrance said, as NYP quoted, "It was like free-for-all for vultures. It was like a warzone in a lounge — rows and rows of beds. All our luggage was still on the plane whilst we waited.'
A video also showed the stranded passengers lying side by side on mattresses like a scene out of a refugee camp.
'We were there for over 12 hours,' Lawrance lamented. 'We waited six or seven hours before we were offered a drink.'
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