Passengers stuck on 32-hour flight to nowhere and return where they started
A holiday flight to Greece was forced to return home after a gruelling 32-hour journey and failed landing attempts.
It was meant to be a quick, less than three-hour flight from Zurich to Heraklion in Crete, but passengers ended up travelling for almost two days when their Condor flight DE1234 was caught in strong winds.
The nightmare journey started on May 24 at 6.51am as the Airbus A320 took off from the Swiss airport and zoomed towards the holiday paradise.
But the passengers never got to enjoy the sunny island.
After about two hours, it was time to prepare for landing, but strong winds in the Sea of Crete prevented the descent.
The pilot circled near the airport for about half an hour before the crew were forced to head off to refuel, Flightradar24 shows.
Passengers were allegedly given a glass of water and nothing else during the flight, and some people vomited on approach to Heraklion, according to the New York Post.
The plane diverted to Athens, where it landed at about 11.24am, hours after it had left Zurich.
But the crew were determined to get the 137 passengers to the island, and a second attempt was made to travel to Heraklion.
However, the weather was still rough, and after circling near the Heraklion Airport for about 40 minutes, the pilot aborted the descent and headed to Kos, some 313 miles northeast.
Holidaymakers never set foot on Kos as the plane was then diverted to Thessaloniki on the Greek mainland, where the plane landed at about 6pm – almost 12 hours after departing Zurich.
As the crew was approaching their working time limit, people had to spend the night in Thessaloniki.
The next morning, the plane and its passengers travelled back to Heraklion in the hope of finally making it.
But continued strong winds meant landing was impossible, and the plane was diverted to Athens again, where the pilot decided to give up and return to Switzerland, 1,198 miles away.
The plane touched down shortly before 3pm after the futile journey. More Trending
Metro approached Condor Airlines for a comment.
Strong winds and sudden turbulence can be dangerous, even when flying above dry land.
A Ryanair flight hit severe turbulence recently from Berlin to Milan, injuring eight people and a crew member.
The conditions were so rough on board that the 179 passengers feared the plane could fall apart.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
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