A TUI passenger has opened up about her "nightmare" experience onboard a plane that "bounced hard off the ground" when it tried to land at Bristol Airport before taking off again.
The flight had already been delayed by hours and the chaos didn't stop at the aborted landing - when it finally arrived at Birmingham Airport frustrated passengers began fighting one another, the police were called onboard and a woman went into labour.
Naomii Thomas says the problems began before the plane had even taken off from Cape Verde.
“Initially the flight back to Bristol was delayed by two hours and 45 minutes,” the 36-year-old told WalesOnline from her home in Caerau where she finally returned with her partner around 10 hours over schedule.
“We asked if we could stay in the hotel because it would mean avoiding a six-hour wait at Cape Verde Airport, but they said no and instead gave us a voucher worth five euros.
“The airport was manic due to delays. It’s only a small airport and because we were all there earlier than we really needed to be with these vouchers the queues were huge. It was an absolute nightmare.”
TUI has apologised for the "inconvenience caused to customers onboard" and said the "safety and wellbeing of passengers and crew is always our highest priority".
Naomii said: "I have flown a lot and have always been told it takes an hour and a half to do standard safety checks.
"When we boarded the plane the pilot spoke to us immediately, and he said because he would try to get us back to Bristol with as little delay as possible the plane hadn’t been stocked with any food.
“He then said the airline staff had volunteered to work over their hours, and that they were very tired. Essentially telling us not to be difficult.
“We were later told by staff on the flight that wasn’t the whole story. Staff told customers that they were asked to fly and that they had all flown over their allocated hours.”
Naomii explained she believed the pilot was in such a rush to get off the ground to try and avoid being delayed by three hours, meaning there could be a chance passengers could claim compensation.
“I had already gathered from the way the plane had rushed from the ground that they were trying to get us home as soon as possible so they wouldn’t have to pay compensation,” she said.
“We met a lot of people out there who were actually in credit from their holiday because of delays.
"One family of five from Barry had paid £1,900 for the holiday and received £2,500 on the way out and then again on the way back.
“The pilot told us he would be taking a shortcut. The moment we hit the ground in Bristol we were on two hours and 55 minutes.”
Passengers told of the plane hitting the runway hard before rising back into the air.
They said it couldn’t have been on the ground for more than one or two seconds.
Naomii recalled the pilot told them that because they had taken a shortcut not enough fuel had been used and the plane was too heavy to land.
But TUI says the decision not to land was made due to bad weather conditions.
“My understanding is that because the plane was too heavy the runway wasn’t long enough for him to stop in time,” Naomii explained.
“We hit the floor really harshly, like a crash landing, and then literally about a second later we were straight back up again.
Within seconds the pilot informed the passengers he would try to land again.
But after three or four minutes of hovering above the airport he then told them they couldn’t land in Bristol due to a fuel issue and they would instead attempt to land in Birmingham.
Passengers had been unaware that the pilot had issued the emergency code.
Naomii said: “Everyone was kind of just looking at each other wide-eyed, some obviously panicking thinking there was something wrong, others were nervously laughing in a sort of confused way,”
"When the plane did land in Birmingham it wasn’t the end of the ordeal for the poor passengers - in fact it turned from worry and annoyance into comical despair for some.
“We were sat there for two hours.
“People started kicking off and the police were called on.
"One family started arguing with another, I don’t know what about exactly - but one of them got escorted off by the police and some of the police stuck around after that.
“A woman then went into labour and they called paramedics onboard. Unbelievably one of the women escorted off the plane minutes before was actually an A&E nurse.
“Eventually they let us off the plane and we went through to baggage reclaim where we were waiting for another two and a half hours.
"We had to wait for three flights to be unloaded before we had our turn and we were continuously being put to the back of the queue.”
By the time they’d reached Bristol to get their car they’d been delayed by ten hours and the whole ordeal was more than 20 hours.
Naomii said the whole debacle has left her “really annoyed”.
“I wouldn’t say I’ve been put off flying, but I have reservations about flying with TUI."
A spokeswoman for TUI said: "We can confirm that TOM245 from Sal, Cape Verde, to Bristol was diverted to Birmingham on June 7 due to weather conditions at Bristol Airport.
"Our crew offered all possible support during the flight before everyone was safely disembarked. We’d like to apologise for the inconvenience caused to customers onboard.
"The safety and wellbeing of passengers and crew is always our highest priority and we’d like to thank passengers for their patience and understanding."
