Passengers Stranded At Gatwick for Five Days After Med-View Airlines Cancels Flights

“Ongoing technical problems” credited for keeping flyers stuck at airport, while airline blames flyers.

Hundreds of flyers are accusing Nigeria’s Med-View Airlines of stranding them at London Gatwick Airport (LGW) over the Christmas holiday, while the airline paints a different picture of the root issues. As many as 800 flyers trying to leave London for Africa flying with the carrier were stuck at the airport, after “ongoing technical problems” kept the carrier from flying.

Britain’s Evening Standard reports flyers felt “abandoned” by the airline, after the carrier did not fly their normally scheduled runs starting on December 22, 2017. While the carrier would not initially say why the cancellations happened, officials for LGW said a technical situation were the cause for the delays and asked passengers to return home to sort out their travel plans.

“Passengers due to travel to Lagos with Med-View Airline are advised that due to ongoing technical problems there are no scheduled Med-View flights on Thursday December 28 or Friday December 29,” the airport wrote in a public statement. “At this stage Gatwick is not able to provide any further information on future Med-View flights planned between now and the end of the year.”

However, the airline placed the blame on flyers, claiming bad behavior caused a domino effect on the Med-View network. In a statement to Nigerian Flight Deck, an airline executive said while three aircraft were scheduled to depart, only two actually left because of bad passengers.

“Our flight […] out of London to Lagos on Friday December, 22 which has about 300 passengers on board returned back to Gatwick after departure as a precautionary measure taken by the Pilot-in-Command in line with Aviation Standard and Recommended Practices,” the statement from airline chief operating officer Michael Ajigbotosho read. “This led to cancellation of the flight as the aircraft was declared ‘Aircraft On Ground.’”

Med-View says they took reasonable steps to help those canceled, including providing hotels and meals. The airline asked for passengers’ patience as they worked with British officials to send relief aircraft to transport those stuck by the situation, but flyers who spoke to the Evening Standard expressed a different set of emotions.

“This airline should be shut down,” Abibey Kukoyi told the newspaper, claiming he spent over $1,600 on his ticket. “They are selling tickets still despite hundreds of people waiting around here for days on end.”