by PASSENGERS on their minds went crazy yesterday after a 12-hour nightmare flight allegedly ended with someone trying to tear open a door to retrieve their luggage.
Police were called after TUI customers went berserk when their four-hour flight from Turkey en route to Norwich was diverted 150 miles to Birmingham Airport.
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After disembarking from the miserable Dalaman plane at 3am, the latest victims of Britain’s airport chaos were told they had to wait another four hours to retrieve their luggage.
Exhausted, some were furious, with a video showing passengers engaged in a furious quarrel with airport staff as they tried to retrieve their belongings, reports BirminghamLive.
In the midst of chaotic scenes, police desperately tried to calm their temper when passengers based in East Anglia encountered a monstrous trip home.
Some were so furious – including a man in his 60s with “late stage cancer” – that they even ordered taxis to get them home.
Meanwhile, those who had been promised buses found that no one had turned up when they finally got out of the terminal – they had to wait up to an hour before arriving.
Catherine Arnold, 40, and her partner Tom, 41, were caught up in the chaos and said some passengers were forced to lie down on the floor after half a day of hell.
Catherine, who filmed the video, said: “When we came to Birmingham to pick up our suitcases, the bags did not come out.
“It was awful because there were no staff in the room. We were stuck in there for four hours in total without any communication.”
Without any representative being sent to meet the desperate passengers, TUI apologized to customers in a text, citing a ramp error for the delay.
They admitted that it had failed passengers after Catherine’s video circulated online.
Catherine added: “There was no TUI representative there until around 07.00, and we landed at 03.20.”
And she said how a woman asked for her pram to put the exhausted baby to sleep – the baby ended up falling asleep on the floor.
In the shocking video, a passenger explains that poor customer service from airport staff had been exacerbated by vending machines that only accepted coins and small banknotes.
The airport’s ATM only handed out £ 20 – which left passengers completely lost.
Catherine added that once outside the airport, people began to get bored and it got heated, with the police being called “to spread the situation”.
«NEVER FLY WITH TUI»
She added: “Quite ridiculously, TUI sent us an email to apologize and to offer us a £ 150 coupon for our next TUI holiday, which I thought was a kick in the teeth.
“We will never fly with TUI again after this.”
A TUI spokesman said: “We truly apologize to customers traveling on TOM713 from Dalaman to Norwich Airport, which was originally delayed due to a previous flight delay due to bad weather.
“We then had to divert the plane to Birmingham Airport due to the curfew at Norwich Airport.
“Delays in baggage retrieval and transfers in Birmingham unfortunately meant that customers waited much longer at the airport than they should have.
“We are investigating how this happened to prevent it from happening again.
“We have arranged transport for all customers who are now on their way back to Norwich, and we have been in contact with them to apologize, explain how to claim compensation and give a gesture of goodwill.
“We realize that this is not the level of service our customers typically receive, and we apologize.”
The chaos comes as TUI has struggled to keep control of their flight routes – with one flight even delayed because staff were tired.
Passengers on board the TOM269 plane on July 5 from İzmir Adnan Menderes Airport to Manchester Airport were surprised to see that it was postponed until the next morning.
And the carrier has been forced to make several cancellations as the crisis at airports in the UK, spurred on by staff shortages and the fallout from the pandemic, deepens.
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