A family is stranded in Spain for five days after easyJet canned their flight home because of disruptive passengers.
Sandra Niemcyzk and her husband Victor, both 57, and daughter Lucy, 27, were stuck in Alicante with around 300 other passengers after an incident on the incoming jet that was due to take them home grounded the plane. Along with her brother, sister-in-law, nephew and her nephew's girlfriend, the family have been told they can't fly home until Tuesday April 18.
The family were due to board the 9.20pm flight to Manchester on Thursday April 13, Stoke-on-Trent Live reports, before police met the jet at the airport as it came in to land. While the Niemcyzks have been lucky enough to stay with family, others have been sleeping on the airport floor after being unable to sort accommodation.
Sandra said: "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."
Sandra and her family were able to stay with her brother, but others were not so lucky. She claimed that some passengers were left in tears because they couldn't get home to jobs and their loved ones.
She added: "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 has forked out cash for taxis and food that she hadn't budgeted for, and has wasted £152 on tickets for a musical that she won't be able to see because of the delays. 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 has continued to insist that the cancellation was "out of their control" but says all additional costs will be reimbursed. It maintains that all travellers were offered options for alternative flights, refunds and hotel accommodation.
A spokesperson told the Manchester Evening News: "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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