The TUI flight was due to land at Manchester Airport but was diverted to Gander, Canada after a passenger’s behaviour became ‘aggressive and alarming’ on board, according to fellow travellers
A father has described his family’s “horrible” experience after they were left stranded in a remote Canadian town when their flight was abruptly grounded due to a disruptive passenger.
The father, named Mr Stockford, was returning home from an all-inclusive break with his wife and four daughters in Cancun when a man’s conduct became “aggressive and alarming” on board their TUI flight to Manchester Airport. Mr Stockford said the man was seated directly behind his daughters and made multiple attempts to leave the aircraft mid-flight. He then made ‘disturbing’ remarks about a “man with a knife” that scared other passengers, many of whom were children.
Mr Stockford claims that crew members managed to restrain the man with assistance from a doctor. However, as the aircraft neared the Pacific Ocean, he was considered too great a flight risk and the pilot opted to divert the plane to Canada where he could be taken off by police. According to Mr Stockford, the disruptive passenger’s wife later blamed his conduct on diazepam he purchased from a taxi driver in Mexico.
The Boeing 787-9 touched down in Gander in the early hours of Friday morning – a small town in the north-eastern region of the island of Newfoundland, Canada. Describing the mayhem on board the aircraft, he said: “The plane landed quite firm, he tried to get up, TUI staff shouted ‘sit back down, now!’ and kids behind us were crying, thinking they were gonna’ die,
“They were saying, ‘why do I feel like I’m dying, mummy? It was horrible.”
He went on to say that as he and nearly 400 fellow passengers disembarked, the pilot assured them they would be “looked after”, reports the Manchester Evening News. Yet once off the plane, passengers claim they were met with a string of problems and very little information from TUI.
“We entered a country at 3C having been in a 32C country. We had shorts on, t-shirts, babies weren’t wrapped up because of that,” he recalled.
Among the reported problems were lengthy delays in transport to TUI-arranged hotels, and upon arrival, the family claim they were informed their room would only be available for under four hours. The MEN understood that accommodation across the town had been snapped up due to a major local event.
“On the plane the captain they were gonna’ look after us and said they were going to provide us with transport to a hotel, a free hotel, food and drink.” he said. “At that point we were thinking, ‘we’re not going to go home today, but at least we’ve got a hotel to rest in’.
“We queued up for this transfer, the transfer was a 12-seater crooked old school bus. As you can imagine, 360 passengers, it was going to take time. The hotels were three or four across Gander. We tried to ring a taxi because we had young children. There was only three taxi companies in Gander, it’s a population of 12,000. The taxi came, and they couldn’t take us because they had no car seat and it was illegal to drive a baby without a car seat.
“We eventually got on the bus. We got to the hotel three hours later, everyone was tired, and the hotel staff told us we’ve only got the hotel for four hours.”
Upon returning to the airport on Friday, the family were informed there would be a further 14-hour wait before they could depart for home. As a result, the majority of passengers were forced to sleep on the airport floor at Gander, with very little food, drink or clothing available, as most of their luggage had remained on the plane.
The father-of-four, from Manchester, said news of their diversion had reached the local community, who rallied round to help the stranded Brits get around town to pick up essential supplies. This is not the first time Gander has found itself in such a situation. The town has become known for supporting stranded travellers over the years — including on 9/11, a moment which became the focus of hit musical Come From Away.
He said: “Loads of locals flooded in and helped everyone get back to the airport. We’ve got a lift back to the airport for free, which was lovely. Then we had to spend 14 hours with the rest of the 360 passengers on the floors of the airport. Children sleeping on the floors, families on the floors because there was not enough seats.”
The flight was due to land at Manchester Airport at around 7:15am on Friday (June 5). However, the family didn’t make it home until Saturday (June 6).
“14 hours on the airport floor, cold floors, hard floor, babies, young kids, families. Just not taken into consideration,” he said. “We got given some vouchers, but I got a photo of the airport fridges, there was hardly anything left.”
Business owner Mr Stockford says the ordeal has left his children traumatised and cost both him and his wife lost earnings.
“My daughters are nervous now to fly again because of the situation,” he said. “TUI from the start of being diverted to the end, just completely failed us.”
TUI has been contacted for comment.
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