PASSENGERS have been stranded at Edinburgh Airport for more than seven hours after a power generator “exploded” and covered a plane in oil.
The Air Canada flight AC807 was supposed to leave the Scottish capital at 9am for Toronto but was delayed for several hours.
Passengers were eventually allowed to board the flight at 12pm, but were left sitting on the aircraft for several hours, without air conditioning.
The pilot later announced they would have to disembark due to the plane needing maintenance.
According to passengers onboard the flight, the pilot said the plane’s ground power units had “both failed” leaving the odds of them taking off at “probably none”.
Passengers were then later updated by the pilot who said airport staff were “trying to restore power to the plane” before they were asked to disembark the aircraft.
Holidaymakers were then informed that the aircraft crew were “waiting to steal power units from another plane” and that they hoped they would be able to get passengers back onboard in “an hour”.
However, one passenger told The National that then they were informed that one of the generators had “exploded,” adding that there was “oil all over the aircraft”.
Staff at the airport then reassured the passengers that the oil explosion was “not dangerous”.
One passenger told The National: “I’ve been at the airport since 6am hoping to catch this plane, and 10 hours on I’m still here. I’m exhausted.
“Once we finally got onboard, nearly three hours late, we ended up stuck on the plane for another two hours before eventually being taken off because one of the ground generators ‘exploded’ and splatted oil all over the plane.
“So many things have gone wrong it’s almost comical, if we didn’t all have connections and places to be.
“The staff are doing as much as they can but it’s chaotic and no one has a clue what’s going on.
“In the middle of a heatwave, this is the last thing we all needed.”
One passenger said that the captain of the flight said it was an “unfortunate series of events” but the passenger added the oil explosion was “just crazy”.
It is understood the flight has several members of the Tartan Army who are making the trip to Canada to then fly to Florida to catch Scotland’s last World Cup group match against Brazil in Miami on Wednesday evening.
The National understands the airline has cancelled Tuesday's flight and has rescheduled it for 9am on Wednesday.
An Air Canada spokesperson has denied that there was an explosion despite passengers being told by the plane's crew that there was.
The spokesperson said: "Reports of an explosion are false, and a small oil leak on the tarmac was from one of the airport’s ground power units. There was no oil on the aircraft.
"Unfortunately, due to a maintenance issue with the aircraft which took longer to resolve than expected, the flight is now cancelled. The customers will be offered hotels and rebooked to their final destination."
