Children Sleep on Carts After Airline Strands 300 in Spain
Jennifer Billock September 23, 2015
After a different flight’s emergency landing, Thomson Airways customers were forced to sleep in Menorca Airport.
On the way to the U.K., about 300 Thomson Airways passengers ended up stranded at Menorca Airport (MAH) in Spain overnight. Earlier that day a Thomson plane had to make an emergency landing at Cardiff Airport (CWL), which led to the stranded travelers’ flight from Spain being delayed and ultimately canceled.
MAH offered complimentary hotel stays for the affected passengers, but according to traveler Louise Brown, the hotel was unacceptable and couldn’t guarantee a return trip to the airport in the morning. This uncertainty forced many families to spend the night in the airport, and Brown says her three-year-old son had to sleep on a luggage cart.
“We had a fabulous holiday but this was just a nightmare,” said Brown. “They treated us like unattended baggage. We were dumped at the airport and that was it. We will be making an official complaint. It is just a total lack of communication and organization.”
The airline issued the following statement via DailyMail:
Thomson Airways would like to apologize for the inconvenience caused to customers travelling on flight TOM2657 from Menorca to Manchester, which was delayed due to a number of factors. As a result of a technical issue and mandatory crew rest restrictions, an alternative aircraft was sourced as quickly as possible and we did all we could to assist our passengers at Mahon airport. Customers arrived back in the U.K. after the aircraft landed at Manchester airport at 10:12 a.m. on Sunday, September 20. We would like to reassure customers that delays of this nature are extremely rare.
[Photo: Daily Mail]
Sad attempt at a shocking headline for a non-story. It remainds me of Helen Lovejoy (and sometimes Moe Syzlak) "OOOH! Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children!"
Jennifer, did you feel a little dirty when you "wrote" this "story"?
"Parents made little child sleep on a luggage cart overnight because they could not be bothered to accept the hotel, the airline has provided them with". Fixed that one for, still sounds weird but a lot less aggravating.
WHY would you leave your kids to sleep on a cart when the article states that a hotel was provided by Thompson? It is completely Thompsons responsibility to make sure that the passengers in the hotel get back to the airport for their delayed/next flight - not the passenger or the hotels. I just can't understand why anyone would instead chose to stay at the airport - and definitely not if you are then going to later complain your kids had to sleep on a bag cart.