A diabetic carer has described her ‘absolute hell’ trying to fly back to Manchester from Greece after being told they could not board the plane because air staff were ‘exhausted’.
Rachael Utley was coming back from Rhodes after celebrating a friend’s 50th birthday, and was due to fly at 11.25pm on Saturday (July 2). However, she was told during that day that the flight would be delayed.
When she and her pal Jo Greer arrived at the airport, they were ‘stopped’ from boarding by staff, Rachael, 47, said - but that was only the start of her ordeal. easyJet have now apologised for the 'difficulty' customers had.
“They stopped [boarding] and said they needed eight people to volunteer to fly out the next day,” Rachael said. “They said one of the air stewards was exhausted and demanded rest. Nobody came forward, so they let us board. There were babies and old people were passing out.”
Another passenger the Manchester Evening News spoke to said that staff then did let passengers board, but stopped the final eight people from getting on the plane. That included Rachael, Jo, 52, and another party of four younger women that they befriended at the airport.
One of that group was Morgan Haddock, who said: “We were then stood on the ramp to the bus in 26-degree heat for an hour with nobody telling us anything. Some poor lady at the front passed out, staff just stood there and did nothing. Only the family of the lady helped her.”
Rachael — who suffers from diabetes, severe food allergies, asthma, and is dairy-free — and her party were then taken to arrivals, but say no members of easyJet staff were on hand to arrange accommodation. She continued: “We could not find anybody from easyJet. We were in this room and there were three Swiss Air staff trying to get us accommodation.
“There was no room for us, they said, and they took us back to arrivals. Eventually because of my ill-health, I did get a room in a hotel. It was horrendous.” Morgan said that the six of them eventually found a hotel room — designed for four people — which was supposed to be used by cabin crew.
In the end, Rachael — who fell ill due to not being able to eat — managed to get home at 7pm on Sunday, July 3. However, the experience was ‘hell’, she said: “It was absolute hell. It was unbelievable. It was horrendous.”
In response, an easyJet spokesperson said: “ easyJet can confirm that flight EZY1816 from Rhodes to Manchester on 2 July was overnight delayed and rescheduled to depart the following day, 3 July due to a crew member being unable to operate. Cabin crew and pilots have an obligation under safety regulations to report if they feel unable to operate. The safety and wellbeing of passengers and crew is always easyJet’s first priority.
"We did all possible to minimise the impact of the disruption for our customers, offering hotel accommodation and meals where required. Unfortunately, due to limited hotel room availability in Rhodes, we were unable to provide rooms for all customers and advised that anyone who sourced their own hotel accommodation will be reimbursed for any reasonable expenses. Nonetheless we fully understand the difficulty the overnight delay in Rhodes will have caused our customers and we are very sorry for this”.
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