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Home » United Kingdom » Wow: Pilot Calls Police To Rescue Plane Full Of Passengers Abandoned By Ground Staff
United Kingdom

Wow: Pilot Calls Police To Rescue Plane Full Of Passengers Abandoned By Ground Staff

Matthew Klint Posted onJune 1, 2022November 14, 2023 23 Comments

a group of people sitting in an airplane

If you thought my story on the Queen’s 15-minute delay into London was a yawn, how about sitting hostage onboard an aircraft for three hours after the ground staff just went home? We pivot now to Manchester, as flights and delays compound across the United Kingdom.

Pilot Calls Police For Help After Ground Staff Abandon TUI Aircraft Full Of Passengers

Holidaymakers set to travel from Manchester (MAN) to Tenerife (TNF) last night faced a two-hour boarding delay on their TUI flight, due to poor weather and a staffing shortage. Eventually, the flight boarded just after 7:00PM and prepared to depart shortly thereafter.

But there was insufficient ground staff to load luggage and baggage handling took so long, the flight was cancelled. According to reports, however, ground staff simply went home…leaving the passengers and flight crew just sitting on the aircraft as it parked on the tarmac.

Passenger Adam Wyczalkowski explained:

“We were then told all the staff had then disappeared, and the captain told us all that due to crew hour regulations, the flight might get cancelled in the end. Eventually they made another announcement that there had been no communication about us getting off the plane because there were no staff available to let us off. There are so many kids on here and families excited to go away for half term.

“People are just getting so frustrated and angry. It is so hot and there is no air con and we were only offered a complimentary drink. There was not a single member of staff in sight, so the captain informed us they will be calling the police in order to let us disembark.”

With the plane heating up and passengers (rightfully) becoming agitated, the captain radioed police, pleading for help. With the assistance of police, the aircraft was finally de-boarded at 10:00PM.

TUI released the following statement on the flight:

“We’d like to apologise to customers travelling on flight TOM2106 from Manchester to Tenerife on Monday 30 May which was unfortunately delayed due to operational issues. 

We were in contact with affected customers, offered overnight accommodation and meals where needed, and advised them of their new departure time as soon as we could. This flight is now due to depart this evening.

The May half-term holidays are always an incredibly busy period with many customers looking to get away, and this year is no different. 

We’d like to apologise again for the inconvenience caused and we thank customers for their understanding and patience during this time.”

Swissport ground staff have also apologized for leaving the passengers stranded onboard, blaming staffing shortages.

Stories of delays and cancellations are all too common across the United Kingdom this week, as holiday travel has overturned the system. Although airlines and ground handling companies have sought to hire thousands of new workers, a dire staffing shortages remains. Now the UK Government and airline executives are blaming one another for a ripple effect that has destroyed the travel plans for thousands across the Kingdom this week.

CONCLUSION

If you are traveling in the UK this week, do check your flight status before heading to the airport, arrive early, and also research alternate options to get to your destination. If you cannot afford a delay, you cannot afford not to have a back-up plan. For those passengers on TOM2106, hopefully police will not have to rescue them again tonight as their flight to Tenerife will again attempt to takeoff.

image: Adam Wyczalkowski

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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23 Comments

  1. Dave Edwards Reply
    June 1, 2022 at 10:59 am

    Thankfully we here in the greatest country in the world don’t have the problems these 3rd world countries and airlines seem to be having recently based on your stories.

    Perhaps these airlines can send employees over here to work with Spirit, Frontier and Allegiant to see how to improve themselves.

    • Jamea Reply
      June 1, 2022 at 11:09 am

      It sounds like you are being sarcastic but then your last point is not congruent with the view the US has horrible flight service. Because the US has treated its passengers like in third world countries. Maybe yoi have not read any news about flying in the US recently

    • Beachmouse Reply
      June 1, 2022 at 11:59 am

      The fines associated with US tarmac delay rules are stiff enough that airline operations will typically have the stopwatch on a plane in those scenarios even when everything else in the system is going pear-shaped. Sounds like the plane in this case was a remote stand/tarmac delay scenario so they couldn’t just let passengers off at the jet bridge.

  2. derek Reply
    June 1, 2022 at 11:46 am

    What would happen if you were having brain surgery on your head and suddenly the brain surgeon says that she has worked too many hours and is going home, leaving your brain exposed. The ground workers should not be only fired but their careers ended permanently. That would happen to the brain surgeon; fired and unable to ever work again except maybe in yard work. Don’t say it’s different because the brain surgeon makes more money. Sometimes the insurance denies payment and work is done for free.

    • J Reply
      June 2, 2022 at 12:53 am

      Or hear me out pay them more to have them stay beyond their off time. 3x 4x 5x times pay would make them stay but expecting them to give up their off time and sleep for a company paying the absolute bare minimum possible is outrageous. It’s not on the worker it’s on the cheap company

  3. Random gawande Reply
    June 1, 2022 at 12:06 pm

    Nice, the cops went inside? There must not have been an active shooter inside.

    And here i thought cops and republicans are basically useless.

    • Tony C Reply
      June 1, 2022 at 4:55 pm

      You are a 1 Trick Pony and it’s really tiring. We get it, you hate Republicans. Maybe Matthew could finally do something about you and stop alienating some of his readers. .

      • Random gawande Reply
        June 2, 2022 at 12:56 am

        Lighten up. It was a joke, just like white Republican males.

        Please use some thoughts and prayers on your hurt feelings.

        • cargocult Reply
          June 3, 2022 at 2:15 pm

          Debit, please try harder.

    • Carolyn Collins Reply
      June 8, 2022 at 4:46 pm

      The ones useless are “Demorats” money grubbing ,Country ruining loosers ! Look at all the democrat states have gone to H… ! Crime, murders , no one is safe . Murders etc let out of jail and on the streets to commit more crime and murder. This country is the worse as it has ever been under this administration

  4. ed lewis Reply
    June 1, 2022 at 12:33 pm

    Ridiculous and Dangerous at the same time! Who’s supervising these people? Where were the crew chiefs, the shift supervisiors, the managers or the Vice Presidents? Did none of the above care? Fire the whole bunch and start over. There is no recovering from that.

    • J Reply
      June 2, 2022 at 12:55 am

      Oh yeah firing the only staff you have during a massive shortage is how you safe your company…. Maybe if they paid out the ass in overtime they’d have workers stay but nobody wants to stay an extra 3-4 hrs a night for basic wages and no benefits.

    • Stup id_ed Reply
      June 4, 2022 at 4:51 am

      Good idea. Then after that, who will work? “YOU? hypocrisy at its finest.

  5. Batchcaloupe Reply
    June 1, 2022 at 1:49 pm

    If only we could be more like Europe….

  6. JoEllen Reply
    June 1, 2022 at 7:31 pm

    When I worked for United, if something like this were to happen, ie., a diversion or a return to an airport in the middle of the night, staff were called at home and gotten out of bed !

    • J Reply
      June 2, 2022 at 12:57 am

      Still a choice at United. If they weren’t going to reward the workers for coming in on their free time then they had no obligation to come in for work. You can’t expect people to work 24hrs for peanuts

    • Ofaviator1 Reply
      June 2, 2022 at 12:03 pm

      Lol not at outstations… I have sat on the ramp with hand mic in hand and angry people behind the flight deck wanting off the plane for over 2hrs… Operations at outstations are not always operated by UAL…

  7. Uli Reply
    June 2, 2022 at 9:23 am

    The plane was bound for TFS, not TFN.

  8. Alex Reply
    June 2, 2022 at 4:47 pm

    The question is, who ultimately got the air stairs and brought them to the aircraft? The cops don’t work flights and can only run around the airport asking for help. If another carrier helped out, you can bet the bill for that was huge.

  9. James Harper Reply
    June 6, 2022 at 1:39 pm

    This is only the result of the policy of pay the least and employ the cheapest labour on the meanest conditions. Their working day was up, they went home, nothing to argue about. It’s the result of deskilling your workforce and not allowing them to make decisions. They are on minimum wage and would have received no additional pay for staying taking their rate below the hourly minimum if they had so they would have been working illegally.

    At the moment in the UK, almost anything pays better than airport work but the airport operators have not woken up to that and they still see their jobs as ‘aspirational’ where they can treat their workers like sh*t. Those days are over, grocery stores pay more an hour than airport security staff earn, which would you choose to do?

  10. Dave Reply
    June 6, 2022 at 8:34 pm

    Unless TUI is the parent company behind the ground staff, TUI doesn’t deserve blame. The company behind the ground staff deserve 100% of the blame

  11. Giovanni Socci Reply
    June 11, 2022 at 12:27 pm

    Isn t apologize with Z? the writer said apologise with S.
    It s all Donald Trump’s fault.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      June 11, 2022 at 12:47 pm

      British versus American English.

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