Sophie Hughes, from Huyton, was left ‘stranded’ in Larnaca Airport with her two children after her flight from the Cypriot city – which she had booked with TUI – was cancelled
A mum and her two children were left stranded in Cyprus for over a day after their flight was delayed for nearly seven hours before ultimately being cancelled.
Sophie Hughes, from Huyton, shared the ordeal of her family’s journey home from Larnaca to Manchester Airport which began with a three-hour delay as they arrived at the airport around 9pm on Friday, August 22.
Their flight was originally scheduled for 12.25am on Saturday, 23 August, but when they boarded the TUI plane at 3.30am, they were informed there would be an additional delay. They then sat on the tarmac for another three hours and 45 minutes, according to Sophie.
READ MORE: ‘I thought pain was down to my job – then I went for eye test’READ MORE: Warning as two dead after getting flesh-eating bacteria from eating raw oysters
TUI explained that the delays were due to ground equipment being stuck at the back of the plane, and despite the crew’s best efforts, it couldn’t be resolved before the onboard staff would have exceeded the maximum number of legally worked hours if they had flown back to the UK.
Sophie said the family was told that the crew needed 12 hours of rest before they could fly again, reports the Manchester Evening News. She stated that this resulted in approximately 300 passengers disembarking at around 7.15am local time, with Sophie alleging they were told a TUI representative would be waiting for them in the airport.
Sophie, a mum of two, has shared her family’s ordeal after they were left stranded at the airport for hours. She said they disembarked from the plane only to find that the TUI staff member hadn’t managed to reach the gate and they were left waiting for what felt like an eternity until a Swissport representative arrived to announce there were 90 hotel rooms available.
The 37 year old mum, along with her 12 year old son and 15 year old daughter, seized the opportunity to leave so they could retrieve medication for her daughter’s chronic pain condition from their stored luggage. Speaking to the ECHO, Sophie revealed: “My son has autism and my daughter has a chronic pain condition, they think it’s linked to Covid.
“She needs access to anti-nausea medication and pain medication.” She added: “Not only that, it’s stress induced, her symptoms are heightened in stressful circumstances, so she was in agony when we got back.
“My son has said he doesn’t want to go on a plane again because he was just scared. We didn’t really know what was happening and we didn’t know whether the flight was ever gonna go. We felt stranded. Everyone was kicking off in the airport, we were all just out of our minds..”
Sophie managed to secure a room for her family around 11am but had to fork out €100 for a taxi to the hotel, which she described as being “was in the middle of nowhere”.
Upon returning to the airport on Saturday evening, they discovered people had been forced to sleep on the airport floor after failing to secure one of the available hotel rooms. She revealed: “We were left in the hotel with no indication of when the next flight was. We were told 4pm and then 7pm and the flight ended up being 26 hours later at 2am.
“The people who didn’t have a hotel spent the entire time in the airport, there were children sleeping on the floor with no access to their luggage.” Images given to the ECHO show various individuals queuing at the airport and others sprawled on the floor. Photos shared with the Manchester Evening News also expose small children sleeping on cardboard and paper bags on the terminal’s hard floor. A Facebook group named “TUI disaster 23/08” has been set up for those affected by the delays.
At the time of writing, it had 67 members. Sophie, her children, and the rest of the passengers managed to board the plane and fly back to Manchester around 2am on Sunday, August 24.
TUI chose not to comment when contacted.