A family have found themselves stranded in Spain for five days after easyJet cancelled their flight. Sandra Niemczyk and her family's flight from Alicante to Manchester was called off at the last minute leaving them stuck in the sunny resort for longer than expected.
The family had spent an Easter getaway with extended family in Alicante, but when the party of seven were about about to board their 9.20pm EZY2016 flight back to Manchester on April 13, they were told that the plane would no longer take off thanks to disruptive passengers.
This left Sandra, husband Victor, 57, and daughter Lucy, 27 - along with her brother, sister-in-law, nephew and her nephew's girlfriend - stuck in Spain with around 300 other passengers, and no idea when they would be getting home.
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EasyJet staff said that their plane couldn't fly due to an incident on the incoming flight, which saw police meet the aircraft at the airport.
Since then they have been frantically trying to find alternative flights but the earliest they could get with space for all seven of them was on April 18 - five days after they originally planned to return home.
While Sandra and her family, who live in Stoke-on-Trent, have been able to stay at her brother's accommodation in Alicante, other passengers have not been so lucky and have been forced to sleep on the airport floor.
Sandra, 57, told StokeonTrentLive: "Initially the flight kept saying delayed. There were lots of people queuing to board but then it was cancelled.
"Due to the issues on the way out, we were told staff needed a 10-hour break and that we could come back in the morning. But then they cancelled the flight altogether. In the end they just flew the plane back to Manchester empty.
"We were told to go back through passport control to the EasyJet desk and we would get another flight and a hotel. But we discovered they would only put you up if you had booked a package holiday with them. We were told we'd have to sort out accommodation ourselves.
"When I spoke to the EasyJet representative she just shrugged her shoulders when I asked what she was going to do to help.
"We are one of the lucky ones as my brother has a place out here so we had somewhere to go. There was a young girl in her mid 20s who only had £1 left in her bank account who couldn't afford to pay for a hotel. Another woman was in tears because she needed to get back to her kids. One passenger was supposed to be going to a wedding the next day and a man was supposed to be having a job interview.
"There was a family with a baby and a three-year-old and the mum had run out of milk. It was utter chaos.
"We tried to get another flight straight away but they had all gone. We're stuck here for five days. I've missed my son's birthday and my daughter was supposed to be starting a new job on Monday so she's had to ring them.
"We were left with little option. If we didn't go with EasyJet we'd have had to go via Amsterdam or London which would have made it a lot longer flight. This would have been at our own cost and we would have had to put in a claim. EasyJet basically just abandoned everyone."
Sandra and her family had to pay for a seven-seater taxi back to her brother's accommodation. They will also have to pay for food for the next five days. Sandra had also forked out £152 for tickets to see Heathers in Hanley on Friday but has now lost that money.
She refuses to accept EasyJet's explanation that the 'circumstances were beyond their control'.
Sandra added: "EasyJet has brought this on themselves as they allow stag dos on when they're already drunk and even sell alcohol on board. Apparently this group had taken their own alcohol on the plane and some were smoking and vaping. Nine police officers met them at Alicante after staff were threatened.
"EasyJet are trying to get out of it by saying it's exceptional circumstances but it's of their own making. The seats are sold cheap and then they allow these drunken groups to fly on Thursdays and Fridays, it's no wonder they become riotous.
"They will just say it's out of their control but EasyJet have created a rod for their own backs. We are just really unhappy with how EasyJet have handled it."
EasyJet said the cancellation was 'out of their control', but maintained that customers' costs would be reimbursed, and that travellers were offered the option of a transfer to an alternative flight free of charge, or a refund, as well as hotel accommodation and meals.
An EasyJet spokesperson told the MEN: “EasyJet can confirm that flight EZY2015 from Manchester to Alicante on 13 April was met by police on arrival due to a group of passengers behaving disruptively onboard and as a result the return flight to Manchester was unable to operate.
“The safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew is always EasyJet's priority. We take incidents of disruptive behaviour very seriously and do not tolerate abusive or threatening behaviour onboard and our cabin crew are trained to assess all situations and to act quickly and appropriately, to ensure that the safety of the flight and other passengers is not compromised at any time.
"While this was outside of our control, we are very sorry for the inconvenience this will have caused those due to travel on the return flight to Manchester. We provided customers with the option of a transfer to an alternative flight free of charge, or a refund, as well as hotel accommodation and meals for those customers who required them.
"Should customers have sourced their own flights, including with alternative airlines, accommodation and meals, or incurred other expenses, we will reimburse them."
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