A mum said people were crying as passengers boarded a TUI flight illegally to Manchester.
Anna-Marie Watters was travelling home from her holiday in Mexico when two Russian passengers managed to get on the flight. She explained how passengers were "panicked" and "crying" as they thought the worst during the security breach.
The 54-year-old, from Westhoughton, had enjoyed an "amazing" holiday to Riviera Maya with her 18-year-old son Devon and 21-year-old daughter Taryn and was sat on the plane home, when it suddenly turned back from taxi-ing to the runway.
READ MORE: Mum still waiting for luggage three weeks later after holiday to Spain
She said the captain made an announcement that two passengers were on board illegally, with no visa or paperwork to allow them entry into the UK, and had to be removed, reported Manchester Evening News. She said: "People were wondering how on earth had two people got on a 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, says the two Russian passengers were located but refused to get off and a "kerfuffle" ensued. She said: "We were told to put all phones away and not to video what was happening. "
She said because of the war between Russia and Ukraine, a lot of people started thinking the worst and panicking about what was happening. She said: "People were crying, some people were getting their luggage down from over-head, it was horrendous."
Anna-Marie said the pilot came out to speak to the passengers but she says they were left for two hours sat on the stationary plane at the terminal. She says it took about half an hour for the crew to get the illegal passengers off the plane.
She said an announcement was then made that a suspicious package had been located on the plane and they were investigating what it was. 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 said they were left unnerved for the remainder of the ten hour flight and her son couldn't eat for the duration. Since returning home Anna Marie says she keeps thinking about the vulnerability of the situation and feeling upset.
She said: "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."
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."
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