A mum said she has been left 'crying' in terror after two illegal Russian passengers were discovered on her flight home to the UK and had to be turfed off by TUI staff.
Anna-Marie Walters, 54 had enjoyed an amazing holiday to Riviera Maya, Mexico, with her two children, Devon, 18, and Taryn, 21.
But as they set to return home to Bolton, Greater Manchester, their flight was forced to abort take-off as staff discovered that two passengers had boarded illegally and needed to be removed.
As the plane taxied away from the runway and cabin crew attempted to remove the two individuals, a "kerfuffle" ensued and people began "crying and panicking", Marie told the Manchester Evening News.
She said: "People were wondering how on earth had two people got on a chartered flight without any documentation. It was very scary and it should not have been happening."
Anna-Marie, who is a chief executive for a charity, said the pilot had announced that the two Russian passengers did not have the correct documentation to enter the UK, and asked other passengers to put their phones away.
She says: "We were told to put all phones away and not to video what was happening."
Many were fearful as a result of the war raging on between Russia and Ukraine, Anna-Marie added.
"People were crying, some people were getting their luggage down from over-head, it was horrendous."
Anna-Marie says it was half an hour before staff were able to get the illegal travellers off the plane and the remaining traumatised passengers were forced to sit on the stationary plane for another two hours before take off.
The pilot came out to speak to the stricken passengers Anna-Marie added, but their ordeal continued when another announcement was made that a 'suspicious package' had been found.
She said: "After the passengers were removed there was another announcement that a 'suspicious package' had been found on the plane and they were investigating.
"It took about fifteen minutes before they reassured us it was an 'e-cig' but in that time people were very scared and wondered why we were not being taken off the plane. It was horrendous, it was unbelievable."
Anna-Marie's family were left so unnerved by what they had seen that Devon couldn't eat for the remainder of the 10-hour flight home and the mum of two still feels affected now.
"I keep thinking about it now and crying. We should never have been put in that situation. Serious questions need to be asked to check-in and security."
TUI claimed they had no record of a suspicious package being investigated on board but apologised for the inconvenience to passengers and said they were offering additional training to check-in staff.
A spokesperson for TUI said: "We’re aware of this incident and we take incidents of this nature extremely seriously. Our crew worked quickly to offload the passengers and their bags so the flight could depart.
"We’d like to apologise to all customers onboard for the inconvenience, and we’re providing additional training to our ground handling agents to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
"We have no records of the ‘suspicious package’ so we will be unable to comment on this. Please be assured, if this had happened, it would have been recorded by our crew."
