Passenger stuck on plane for hours tells Nats to ‘sort it out’ after latest glitch

Frustrated passengers caught out by the latest air traffic technical glitch have been stuck for hours at UK airports and on planes.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled across airports in northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, affecting holiday and work plans for thousands of people.

The latest bout of disruption was due to a ‘technical issue’ affecting the National Air Traffic Services (Nats), the main provider for UK airports, less than two weeks after a similar incident affected around 2,000 flights.

One passenger who has spent all day travelling but is still halfway to his destination is Peter Allison, 39, from Edinburgh.

The director of Woven Whisky was scheduled to fly out from Edinburgh Airport to Bordeaux via Gatwick for a two-day work conference, which he has now missed half of.

Shortly after boarding his 8.15am flight, the passengers were told there was a three-hour delay.

He told Metro: ‘We couldn’t believe it. It sounded like a joke, like we had literally just sat down.’

After waiting for a while, the doors were opened and passengers were told they could disembark, but if they did, they would ‘forfeit any compensation or ability to get back on if and when the plane does leave,’ Peter said.

He continued: ‘People were very frustrated. Hot. Bothered. Kids crying, people getting anxious etc. It was pretty bad.’

Updates from the captain were ‘sporadic and hard to follow’ due to ‘plane jargon and what sounded like excuses,’ while the crew were ‘pretty bad at communicating too’, he claimed.

He was left £100 out of pocket after buying new tickets for a connecting flight to Bordeaux, which has since been delayed until about 9pm.

When asked what he would tell Nats bosses, Peter said: ‘We all have to learn from times we’ve messed up.

‘You messed up a few weeks ago, and it’s happened again. Someone needs to a. figure it out, and b. get their knuckles wrapped.

‘It’s us, the travellers who are having to deal with it. And it’s not very nice on anyone. People rely on you providing dependable services. So sort it out.’

Meanwhile, Finlay Mattheis, 22, from Goole, has spent more than 12 hours at Leeds-Bradford Airport.

The chef’s Ryanair flight to Bratislava, Slovakia, scheduled to leave at 7.55am was delayed until 9.35pm.

He told Metro: ‘I’m only off for three nights as the flights were really cheap and I had intended to go and watch a football game tonight, but obviously that plan has died a death.’ 

When he heard that the flight had been pushed back until later tonight, he thought about going home to wait before finding out he could ‘leave the airport but not come back on the same boarding pass despite only living 50 minutes away.’  

He said his flight was one of the worst affected, with many others being held back for ‘only one or two hours.’  

Disrupted passengers are unlikely to get compensation, the Civil Aviation Authority warned.

This is because technical issues are considered an extraordinary circumstance, which is out of the airlines’ control – as was the case with the disruption earlier this month.

However, airlines are required to look after passengers during delays such as handing out food and drinks.

Several airlines have criticised the air traffic provider, and Ryanair’s chief operating officer, Neal McMahon, called for the Nats boss Martin Rolfe to resign.

While flights in the UK were resuming normal operations, US airports suffered an air traffic control issue, causing ground delays and disruption at many of the country’s busiest airfields.

Affected airports include New York’s JFK and LaGuardia airports, New Jersey’s Newark Airport, Boston’s Logan International, and Pennsylvania’s Philadelphia International Airport.

US Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said Amtrak construction crew accidentally cut into a fiber line in New Jersey, which caused the outage and forced flights to halt across the northeast.

So far, 183 flights have reportedly been axed, and 197 are delayed.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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