Boris Johnson’s father has defended refusing to get back on a British Airways flight, leaving passengers stuck at the wrong location.
Stanley Johnson was one of three passengers who got off a flight intended for Gatwick after it was forced to divert to Heathrow Airport.
The self-confessed troublemaker described how a recent flight home from Malaga had been “going swimmingly” before passengers learnt that a plane was stuck on the runway at Gatwick and they had to make a stop off at Heathrow.
Recalling the incident in an opinion piece for the Independent Mr Johnson wrote: “As we landed at Heathrow, the captain informed us that after we had taken on some fuel, we would make the “short hop” back to Gatwick.
“He went on to invite any passengers without luggage in the hold to disembark at Heathrow if they wanted to. That sounded like a very good idea to me.”
Mr Johnson explained that he stepped out of the plane with two other passengers but that later turned out to be a mistake.
The group were later told that despite responding to the captain’s invitation the flight was still scheduled for Gatwick and “everyone would have to get off in Gatwick – and that included the three of us, even though we were no longer physically in the plane but standing on the platform outside the cockpit”.
But since one of Mr Johnson’s companions was “verging on the hysterical” he explained he refused to get back on the flight.
The writer, 83, said that a woman who stood beside him was petrified to return to the plane.
She told staff: “I’ve just lost my husband in an air accident. It was all I could do this morning to bring myself to get on board the plane in Malaga.
“I simply can’t imagine going back in it now, for another take-off and another landing. No, I’m not going to. I’m absolutely not going to.”
Mr Johnson criticised airport staff for going for the “nuclear option” - cancelling the flight to Gatwick and ending the journey at Heathrow.
He wrote: “I am as ready as the next man to shoulder my share of the blame when things go wrong…
“But on this particular occasion, I’m glad I stood my ground. And there was one passenger, at least – that poor woman whose husband had just died in an air crash – who thanked me for it.”
