British Airways criticized for aftermath of Houston bound plane being diverted to St. John's
· Toronto Sun
A British Airways passenger enroute to Houston who wound up in Newfoundland instead after his plane was forced to land due to a medical emergency isn’t impressed with the airlines, reports BBC News.
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Liverpudlian Jon Shipman says British Airways’ handling of the situation was “ridiculous” after he and hundreds of other passengers were diverted to St. John’s, Nfld.
Shipman says once on the ground, passengers were told to go and find hotels with “just the clothes on their back” after being “fobbed off” by the airline.
Then following the medical emergency on Tuesday, the flight couldn’t take off again due to a “temporary technical issue,” so they were stuck there for two days.
“Very sorry”
Meanwhile, British Airways (BA) said it was “very sorry” and it had “been in touch to offer a gesture to make things right,” which was a £500 electronic ($921.00 CAN) voucher for each passenger.
Needless to say Shipman isn’t impressed with the voucher: ““That’s not good enough. Our whole holiday is ruined.”
Speaking before taking off again, Shipman said many passengers were unhappy.
“Furious is an understatement,” he said to BBC Radio Merseyside.
Shipman and his family were enroute to Texas to see their best friends who moved to the U.S. a few years back.
He said three hours into the flight, they were told the plane had to land because of a “grave medical emergency,” but following landing passengers sat “sat on the plane for three hours. They then told us the plane had developed a technical issue, then they told us the plane could not be fixed and we had to be taken off and put up in local hotels.”
Sub-zero temperatures greeted passengers in St. John’s
No one was allowed to take their luggage so passengers went straight through immigration and into St John’s airport where the temperature outside was -10C (or 14F).
“When we finally got through, we were just left, we were just sat around waiting for news, and had to speak to local airport staff for help,” said Shipman.
After being put up in a hotel on Wednesday, passengers returned to the airport but were told the flight would instead be going back to London.
“No one was particularly aggressive, but everyone was frustrated, there were people with families and young kids who’ve been waiting around and sleeping on the floor, it just wasn’t very good from BA at all,” Shipman said.
Then as passengers began to board, they were abruptly told the flight was cancelled again.
Shipman said: “It’s ridiculous, it’s just so poor from British Airways. Most of the frustration was due to lack of information. Just be open and explain what’s happening, you know, we’re not soft, we understand there was a medical emergency, we understand there’s a technical issue. But to then to keep fobbing us off.”