Passengers were left fuming in the early hours of Saturday morning when their Ryanair flight from Dublin to Faro in Portugal landed in the wrong country.
Ryanair laid blame at the door of French air traffic controllers who are currently on strike but passengers were angry that the airline could not have foreseen the problem.
Ryanair explained that the flight took off from Dublin but missed Faro's curfew for arriving flights, believed to be 2am, "due to disruption from the French air traffic control (ATC) strike, which was entirely beyond our control."
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They said this strike impacted all airlines flying to/from/over France that day.
“To minimise disruption to passengers, Ryanair quickly arranged for a coach to transport passengers from Malaga Airport to their final destination," a statement read.
Ryanair concluded by saying it "sincerely apologises to passengers for the inconvenience caused as a result of this unjustified French ATC strike."
Passengers pointed their frustration directly at the airline while one man on board live-tweeted the experience, including a five-hour bus journey from Spain to Portugal.
"Got on a Ryanair flight to Faro and I'm in Malaga lads, you couldn't make this up," artist Barry Masterson posted. While Barry's posts were entertaining, they conveyed the huge frustration shared by him and his fellow passengers who had to endure a delay, a flight to the wrong destination and a hellish bus journey.
"Morale is low, some people are only just realising we're in Spain," he posted.
He continued for hours: "Flight staff are trying to calm the crowd with the promise of the mystery box of answers that someone else will provide when we get in the airport.
"We're on a 5 hour bus to Portugal now and we've stopped for petrol and pee stops within 5 minutes. I'm never getting out of here. 1 bus for 157 people, good luck to everyone we left behind.
"Got to the Dublin airport 12 hours ago and now I'm in a petrol station in Malaga at 5:41am, send help. Oh no, this wasn't a dream, just woke up, I'm still on a bus in who knows where," he said.
Posting a map of Spain and Portugal and the distance between Faro and Malaga, Barry joked that it was "an easy mistake to make" for Ryanair.
Nearing his destination, he posted: "We're doing a bus swap at the border. The new bus driver is here sans bus. I'm getting coffee," adding, "I had a taxi booked from Faro airport to the hotel last night and their receptionist sent a furious text about us landing in Malaga. 'I'm sorry we didn't call to warn you from literally thousands of feet in the air that we were being taken hostage to the wrong country.'"
Barry said passengers blamed Ryanair and questioned whether they knew when the flight took off that it would miss the Faro deadline.
"Bring me Michael O' Leary's head. I've finally become a shouting at a brand on Twitter guy. Look what they've done to me," he joked.
Once in Portugal, there was one last leg of the journey: "We had to spend €55 on a taxi for the final leg of the journey, but I have now had a shower and I need food. Thanks for keeping me company, feel free to hurl abuse in Michael O' Leary's direction."
The bus arrived around 9am on Saturday morning. At lunchtime, having received a huge reaction to this thread, Barry tweeted: "Hello again, lads I can't read all of the replies there's too many. Carry on amongst yourselves. To everyone who DM'd about interviews etc, thank you for your interest but I'm sorry I need to take a step back from the media spotlight to focus on my family. And nap, mostly nap
"I can confirm they did not play the celebration music when we landed," he concluded.
While other Twitter users enjoyed his light-hearted commentary on the situation, they were also disgusted at the situation. Other passengers and their families reacted to the story.
Another man wrote: "My girlfriend was on your flight as well. She and her friends ended up sharing a taxi with another woman down to Faro. Absolutely shambolic."
Another added: "My sister in law on the same flight. They got to Dublin Airport yesterday at 4pm to make sure they were early for the flight. Currently in a taxi to Faro 20 hours later. Ryanair a shambles!"
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