Passengers on a flight that had to abort a landing at Bristol Airport have spoken of their ordeal as the plane 'bounced hard' off the runway and had to divert to Birmingham.
The passengers on board a TUI flight from Cape Verde to Bristol endured a 20-hour ordeal which involved delays at the airport, a frightening aborted landing, the pilots sending an emergency code, being stuck for hours on board the plane on the runway in Birmingham, all three emergency services being called on board to deal with ill or angry passengers and eventually a coach back to Bristol a day after they were supposed to arrive.
The journey on board the Boeing Dreamliner was supposed to begin early on Tuesday evening with a flight back to Bristol from Cape Verde, a holiday destination off the coast of West Africa.
Read more: Bristol Airport: TUI jet aborts landing in Bristol and issues 'emergency code'
But the problems started when the flight was delayed for several hours, and eventually took off just before midnight - with an arrival time scheduled for around 6am in Bristol this morning, Wednesday, June 8.
But the passengers said things started to go wrong when the pilot began the descent in to Bristol Airport. Data from flight tracking website FlightRadar, reported earlier by Bristol Live, showed the plane descended to 800ft before ascending again, but passengers on board said they did touch down on the runway - hard - before flying off again.
"We absolutely bounced off the runway back into the sky, causing a system error," one passenger from Devon, Rachael Lewis, told Bristol Live. "Before we landed, the captain said it would be bouncy due to the tarmac length. We took a shortcut, I've flown in and out of Bristol plenty and I was thinking 'where are we going?' We went down and the plane honestly felt like it smashed the tarmac, then we went back up into the air. The captain announced this was normal and he was going to try again. We did a big turn and then he announced a system error had occurred," she added. "Honestly, it was scary. I've landed in Canada in ice and snow, but this was 'bounce, bounce'.
It was at this point, the maps on their screens changed, and a new destination was announced - Birmingham Airport. But the ordeal wasn't over then for the passengers and crew.
It was at this point, just north of Gloucester, that the pilot issued a 'code 7700' general emergency signal, alerting air traffic controllers that there was a problem with the plane and it needed to land.
There were even more delays while the plane was inspected, to see if it could fly back to Bristol. Passengers were kept on board the plane for two hours, and things became challenging.
First, after around an hour, passengers became unruly to cabin crew. "Loads of people were kicking off," said Rachael. "One man was abusive to staff, so they called the police." That man was escorted off the plane. Then, one pregnant woman on board was taken seriously ill, and after the call for a doctor on board was issued, before firefighters in the airport entered the plane to administer first aid, followed by paramedics who treated her at the back of the plane.
Finally, after two hours, passengers said they were told the plane would not be flying back to Bristol, and they were allowed off the plane to collect their baggage, and another wait in the airport terminal for a coach back down the M5 to Bristol.
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