A mum says her two grieving children were traumatised by their experience travelling home from a holiday to Turkey. Jet 2 has offered its “sincere apologies” to the family - who say they were treated 'like caged animals' during a 46 hour flight delay.
Kelly Orford took her two sons to Antalya for a week on October 14 to try to help them heal following the sudden passing of their father. Kelly's partner Henry Nagai was found unconscious at his job as a security guard during the early hours of August 26.
Paramedics couldn't save the life of the 43-year-old who was sadly pronounced dead at the scene. IT consultant Kelly, from Stretford in Greater Manchester, was reluctant to go on the holiday, paid for by her mum, with her boys Mekhi, 10, and Kaian, five because she felt overcome with grief.
But thinking the break might help her two sons, the 40-year-old took them away for a week in the sun. However, she says the experience has left them 'traumatised'.
“When the holiday came, I didn’t want to go because I’m in absolute pieces,” she told the Manchester Evening News. “However, the boys wanted to go and I convinced myself it would be good for me.”
But things took a dark turn when they turned up at the airport in Antalya ready to return to Manchester at 11.55am on October 21. The family was told their Jet2 flight would be delayed because hydrologic fluid was leaking from the plane and new parts needed to be ordered to fix it.
Kelly, Mekhi and Kaian were put up in a hotel 40 minutes away from the airport, as a result. They returned to the airport the next day and boarded the plane only to be told it hadn't been fixed yet and they would have to wait for a further two hours. The family claim that, after four hours, they remained on the runway without food or water while people around them were collapsing and children were being sick.
Upon finally being released from the plane, Kelly says they had to wait for an additional four hours only to be told the flight had been cancelled. The trio were then transferred back to the hotel for a second time.
On October 23, the flight finally left Antalya for Manchester at 10.30am - 46 hours after it was supposed to leave. Kelly says she couldn’t stop crying following the ordeal.
“It was traumatising,” she said. “I’m so sad for everyone, but mainly my babies, as this was supposed to be a reliever from the worst time in their lives.
“Since we’ve been back, if someone asks my five-year-old how his holiday was, he doesn’t talk about the fun things. He talks about the plane disaster. My son has health anxiety since his daddy died – putting him back on a broken plane has traumatised him. Every time we were transferred, we had to go through arrivals and then security.
"I currently have four stamps on my passport because of the amount of time we had to travel in and out. Most people’s suitcases have also been snapped or broken – mine is completely broken – so no care given to our belongings either.
“It made the worst times of our lives even worse. I’m an emotional wreck. It’s turned my plane-loving boy into a nervous wreck; I now have a battle on my hands trying to convince him to get on a plane so he can see his dad’s resting place and family in Uganda in January. We were treated like caged animals.”
A spokesperson for Jet2 told the Manchester Evening News it wanted to offer its “sincere apologies” to Kelly and her family for the unforeseen delay.
In a statement, Jet2.com said: “We would like to offer our sincere apologies to Ms Orford and her family, as well as all the other customers affected by the unforeseen delay, which was caused after the flight deck crew correctly followed standard procedure after noticing a minor fault indication.
“Although we understand the enormous inconvenience that this causes, we will never compromise on putting everyone’s comfort, safety and well-being first. We provided customers with hotel accommodation on both nights, and our teams worked tirelessly to look after everyone.
"We can confirm that a replacement aircraft flew out to Antalya on Sunday (23rd October) and customers were flown home that same evening.”
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