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Passengers stranded after emergency landing closes Birmingham airport runway

The enforced closure of the runway at Birmingham airport due to an emergency landing on Saturday led to passengers being reportedly stranded for at least 24 hours.

Tui faced criticism from frustrated holidaymakers due to the knock-on effects of the three-hour runway shutdown.

Airlines had to divert Birmingham-bound flights, others were cancelled and departures faced delays of several hours amid scenes of chaos in the terminal.

A total of 29 flights were either diverted or delayed after the runway was closed at 1.45pm on Saturday.

The situation arose after a Norwegian Boeing 737 carrying more than 150 passengers and crew on a flight from Reykjavik to Madrid diverted to Birmingham due to a technical fault believed to be related to hydraulics on the aircraft.

A spokesman for the airline said: “The flight had to divert due to a technical issue. It had originally been going from Reykjavik to Madrid when it landed safely at Birmingham Airport as a standard precautionary measure.

“The fire trucks put foam under the aircraft as a standard precautionary measure.”

Frustrated passengers waiting to fly from Birmingham took to social media to express their anger while others were sent to other airports, including East Midlands and Manchester.

One tweeted to say “Disgraceful at Birmingham Airport. 600 people in a queue after flights cancelled after 9 hours. No rep, no customer service, not even a glass of water.”

Richard Hallum tweeted: “Plenty of police but no sign of Tui representatives following multiple flights cancelled at Birmingham Airport.

“A lot of tired and frustrated passengers who have been here for approaching 12 hours with little information provided.

“Believe we are being shipped by coach to Manchester at some point in the night for a flight early AM but that is hearsay at the moment.”

Another tweeted: “Disgraceful way to treat passengers. No information until you call us 5 hrs late to gate 49 before you eventually tell us the flight is cancelled. Chaos here. Many people frustrated.”

Tui apologised to all customers affected and said due to the runway closure and mandatory crew rest restrictions all its flights delayed on Saturday would depart on Sunday.

But some said they were forced to spend the night at the airport.

Mark O’Brien wrote: “How much ‘overnight’ will we get? An hour in a hotel and then off again. By 2.30am we told them we were going to stay in the airport.”

A spokeswoman from Tui said: “We’re really sorry to hear some of the feedback from customers about their experience following the runway closure and resulting flight delays at Birmingham airport over the weekend.

“We recognise that unfortunately we could have done more to look after our customers in this very unusual and challenging situation. We will be thoroughly reviewing this and ensuring we have better processes in place should this happen again. We have provided a letter to our customers whose holidays were shortened to offer our apologies and to advise that we will be arranging pro rata refunds.”

 

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