PUCCI GALORE

There are a couple of things that come to mind.

Firstly the source is one of the more sensationalist newspapers in the UK. Facts are not allowed to cloud a good story and it thinks that Boris Johnson is the reincarnation of Winston Churchill

Without going from point - the overriding fact is that this is an aircraft not a prison, The people aboard have paid to to be there, not ordered there by a Judge. The last thing that the airline wants is people getting off as that does mess up the reboarding. The only way that people can be prevented from leaving is if the doors are shut, the aircraft is at a remote gate which was boarded by bus or which requires walking any distance across a tarmac. If the aircraft is on an international service and has to divert for whatever reason - people are not allowed to disembark as the cannot enter the country. Years ago we had to divert to LAS before it had international flights and there were no facilities there for entering the USA, This was due to fog at LAX,

However, this does not apply in this instance.This was a delay and the passengers were kept in miserably conditions. I do not know if some law at CLT prevents the bars being opened but we would have done so as the flight was not international. The F bar would most definitely have been open unless there is, as I say, some local rule preventing this. Passengers who wanted to leave and were prevented should state that they were feeling unwell and did that would be that. Neither the crew nor the GAs will want sick passengers aboard. I would go as far as to say that this prevention could be viewed as an illegal confinement. That they do not want you to leave is one thing, that they forbid you from leaving is another and ultimately they have no authority to detain you.