Passengers stranded in airport for 17 hours after couple smoke on London-bound flight | News World

Tourists were left stranded for greater than 17 hours after their plane was diverted attributable to a pair smoking on board.

The London Gatwick Airport-bound flight set off from Cancun, Mexico, on Tuesday (July 8), but inside an hour of take-off the pilot warned two passengers who had been caught smoking within the toilets.

The TUI pilot warned the plane would must divert if the smoking continued – but after one other three-and-a-half hours, the plane was diverted to Bangor International Airport in Maine, US.

Each alleged smokers were turfed off the flight – but other passengers were left waiting of their seats for one more five hours.

Terry Lawrance, 66, was on the plane and said it even taxied to take off before the flight was abandoned attributable to crew being unable to proceed working over their legal working hours.

Describing what happened, Terry said: ‘After an hour the captain got here on and said someone had been smoking in the bathroom – he read the riot act and said if it continues, we’d must divert.

‘About three hours later, across the border with Canada and he got here on to tell us that the plane was being diverted.

‘Once we landed, they removed the 2 passengers. They were obviously drunk, and he mainly assaulted his partner.

‘The captain then said we’d be getting going again once the paperwork has been done.

‘We were sat on the plane on the bottom for five hours – the plane began taxing again and we thought “great” after which they said there was an issue with flight plan, and we’ve got to get off.

‘Next thing, we’re not going anywhere, and we’ve got to remain on this small lounge.’

A relief flight was readied and dispatched from the UK to the US to fly everyone back to the UK.

But passengers were kept in a room for greater than 12 hours while waiting for the relief crew to reach.

Terry believes they were kept within the military air base section of the airport, with rows of camp beds arrange for stranded passengers.

They were unable to go away the airport terminal attributable to US immigration laws, it is known.

The relief flight finally took off from Maine at 3pm local time on Wednesday, with all passengers now safely home.

But Terry said the complete situation went ‘pear shaped’ and claimed it took ‘4 or five hours’ to be offered a drink.

He explained: ‘We were there for over 12 hours – all of it went pear shaped. Everybody was fed up.

‘In fairness, they began bringing out airbeds, however it was like free-for-all for vultures.

‘It was like a warzone in a lounge – rows and rows of beds. All our luggage was still on the plane whilst we waited.’

Metro contacted TUI, who declined to comment.

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