Passenger fury as Newcastle Airport flight delayed, then cancelled
14.05.07
Hundreds of holidaymakers spent more than 8 hours sitting on a plane at Newcastle Airport yesterday after a security scare, only to be told that their flight had been cancelled. At one stage police had to be called to calm the situation on board the Flyjet plane, which was bound for the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
The Flyjet service was meant to depart the airport for Sharm El Sheikh at noon yesterday, but was eventually cancelled at 19:50 after a catalogue of disasters starting with a technical fault, which caused a two-hour delay. However, after this was resolved, the holidaymakers spent the next six hours stuck on the aircraft after a discrepancy in the passenger numbers caused a security scare.
The situation soon went from bad to worse when one of the passengers had to be taken to hospital after suffering stomach pains. Then at 19:50 - almost eight hours after it was originally due to depart - the decision was finally taken to cancel the flight altogether.
A Newcastle Airport spokeswoman said: 'The reason the passengers were kept on the plane for so long was because the crew hoped they could resolve the discrepancy in numbers. Every single item of luggage was identified by a passenger during the check and it is possible the discrepancy was caused by a miscount.'
The passengers spent the night at an airport hotel and rescheduled flight is expected to depart at 10:00 this morning.
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