Parents were left furious as their children were 'stranded' in Edinburgh after their flight back from Lapland was diverted.
Returning from the Arctic Circle, the plane full of families had been trying to make its way to Humberside Airport in England when they were told they would have to land in the Scottish capital.
Speaking about the nightmare ordeal, one mum said she had been "fuming" after being told her daughter, who was with a family member, would be landing more than 200 miles away.
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Taking off from Humberside on Sunday, December 11, the day trip had been filled with excursions to see Santa and even sleigh rides before the plane was due to land back in the UK at 9.40pm.
However, speaking to Grimsby Live, the mum said she was in "absolute shock" when she heard her daughter wouldn't be home anytime soon.
She said: "They went to Finland on Sunday morning and they set off at 7am. They were meant to be there all day and they arrived back at Humberside Airport at 10pm — it was just a fun family day out to Lapland.
"The aeroplane was flying round the airport — me and my partner watched it on the flight tracker because we were waiting for her to get home — and I rang the airport myself and the lady said, 'It's got a 15-minute window gap to decide whether he wants to land or not', because the fog was so thick.
"It got to one hour later and there was no 15-minute window gap, they were still circling. He'd gone up to Scarborough and back down. I rang back again and said, 'What's going on? It's 11pm now, what's going to happen? She's eight and hasn't been very well.'
"The woman said [the pilot] has got to make a decision and I said, 'Well you said that an hour ago, so what's the decision?'"
Fifteen minutes later, the mum was informed that the flight would be landing in Edinburgh. When she asked why it was not being diverted to closer airports like East Midlands or Manchester, she was told that flights from London Gatwick and London Stansted airports were diverted there because of the weather - meaning that all other mainstream airports were "fully booked".
"I was in absolute shock," she said. "You've got all these other airports you could go to but apparently all of them were fully booked because Gatwick and Stansted had diverted flights there because of the weather, so all the other mainstream airports were fully booked."
When the mum contacted Humberside Airport yet again to ask what would happen, she was informed that several buses would be waiting at Edinburgh Airport to take the passengers back to Humberside, with an estimated arrival time of 7am.
But when she spoke to another passenger who had been on the flight, she was told that there were no buses in sight. "No buses showed up at all because of the weather," she said.
At 3.30am, staff at Edinburgh Airport began telling the passengers that they would need to be driven back to Humberside Airport in taxis.
"There were babies, kids my daughter's age and teenagers who had been to see Santa. They thought they were going to get back home for 10.30pm and then they're stuck in Edinburgh. One of the kids even had a nosebleed and there must have been hundreds of them just laid about on the floor," said the mum.
"My daughter and our family member stayed in a hotel for the night and they're not back yet because all trains are cancelled. They were stuck at the train station and the majority of them are cancelling at the last minute. But, hopefully, they get back today. One was £70 and the next was £270 and then another was £350.
"I'm fuming. She was so poorly and I told her to go on the trip, that it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. She was so ill but the family member had spent a lot of money on the trip. I don't get how they can just leave all those children stranded."
A spokesperson for Enter Air said: "The aircraft was diverted due to very bad weather conditions at Humberside Airport. There were no available busses, so all available taxis were used to transfer passengers."
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