Thomas Cook Airlines are facing a barrage of complaints from passengers left to sweat it out on a an aircraft scheduled to fly them from Zante to London Stanstead was delayed yesterday for three hours.
Flight MH1805 had been due to depart Zakynthos (Also known as Zante) at 2pm yesterday, however, passengers were initially told that due to the aircraft needing to be refuelled there would be a delay to boarding. When the passengers were allowed to board the flight, they had to wait in their sets as a 'technical issue' had arisen. People on the flight say the aircraft didn't have any working air conditioning and temperatures were rising fast.
Travellers took to social media to vent, Kerry Shippey tweeted: “Nobody minds a delay, things happen, but keeping people in a tin can in 40 degree heat so that people are passing out and throwing up is taking things a little far don’t you think?”
Another passenger reported that some people stuck on the stationary aircraft were having panic attacks as a consequence of being confined to the aircraft in such extreme temperatures. They say that crew were very unforthcoming in terms of information when answering questions about how long the delay would be. "we'll be taking off in a few minutes." is what they are to have said repeatedly to passengers trying to fan themselves with the flight safety information cards.
After three hours of being held in captivity on the aircraft, the flight was cancelled and passenger allowed off and according to Thomas Cook staff on Twitter, given water, sandwiches and then accommodated in hotels.
However, some people on the aircraft dispute those facts, Jess Fenn tweeted “No water or food was provided. A loud speaker message was made saying water was coming, but then when questioned the Thomas Cook rep told them this could no longer happen!” Another asserted “Thomas Cook we were given no refreshments – wrong information”.
According to a Thomas Cook Airlines spokesperson, "Flight MT1805 from Zante to Stansted was delayed due to a technical issue with the on board air conditioning. We tried to fix the issue so that we could get customers on their way as soon as possible, but we recognise that we should have disembarked the aircraft earlier. We are very sorry for the discomfort our customers experienced."
Passengers finally departed at 9am this morning and were given a letter of apology with detail on how to claim compensation.
