PASSENGERS who were on board a Ryanair flight from Shannon have shared details of the terrifying experience they endured on the service to Birmingham.
Last Friday was a day to forget for the unfortunate passengers who were flying to the UK city. After boarding their aircraft in stormy conditions, they were then left waiting for hours before the plane finally took off.
After going to Birmingham, it was judged that they could not land safely and there was uncertainty for some time as to where they would go instead.
Ultimately the flight was redirected to Prestwick outside of Glasgow. After landing there, the passengers were told they had two options, neither appealing.
One choice was to take a bus to Birmingham, which could take in the region of eight hours. Their other option was to stay on the aircraft, which was going to take off once again, but they were told there was only a 50-50 chance that it would be able to get into Birmingham, and if that wasn’t possible, it’d be going back to Shannon.
In the end the aircraft did land in Birmingham, at around 3pm. It had been due to touch down there before 9am.
It was a gruelling and stressful ordeal for the passengers, and two of them spoke to The Champion this week.
One gentleman had left Galway before 5am to get to Shannon for the flight. He said that when he was going between the terminal and the plane he felt that it wouldn’t be able to fly, given the conditions.
“I’m 15 or 16 stone and it was moving me, that’s how windy it was.”
Many of the passengers were surprised they were boarded, given the weather conditions, and the decision was clearly flawed, as it took hours for them to take off.
“We were getting on that plane and every one of us said this hasn’t a notion of taking off. It was rattling when we were getting on, you could see it. And that was when it was parked with a bit of shelter.”
A frequent international traveller, he says he never really worries about safety while flying, but the conditions on last Friday did get to him.
“I’m not a nervous flyer, I’d go up in a tin can, it wouldn’t bother me. My attitude is if the pilot will go up in it I’ll go up in it, but it was very bad, very bad. We were going into Birmingham, we could see Villa Park, we were getting low, and then Jesus, it started rattling, it nearly fell out of the sky. Then they said they couldn’t land, they were going to try for East Midlands or Manchester. Neither of them could take us, I don’t know whether it was because of the storm or that there was no room.”
With England not an option, Scotland was next on the agenda, and it was there they were given the options of the long coach journey or the flight that would be landing in one of two destinations in two different countries.
“Eventually they said we’d land in Glasgow or Edinburgh. We eventually landed in Glasgow Prestwick, it’s not even in Glasgow, it’s about an hour outside of Glasgow.
“We got there, and we were given two options. One was an eight or nine hour bus journey down to Birmingham, and you’d have to leave your bags on the plane, you’d have to get them some other way again.
“The second option was wait on the plane, hope the storm goes and you were told there was a 50-50 chance you’d land in Birmingham, and if we couldn’t we’d have to go to Shannon. That’s the way it was.”
He was part of a group travelling to the UK for a match and they opted to stay on the aircraft.
Spending so long on board the plane was extremely difficult, especially as it was only supposed to be a short flight, and Ryanair were doing little to help.
“In Prestwick there was an old woman near me, I turned around and I said to the steward, will you get her a cup of tea will you, give her something. He came down with a cup of tea and he charged her.
“Now it’s probably not his fault, there’s probably policies there, but there wasn’t as much as a bottle of water for people.”
Finally the plane did get to Birmingham, but the landing was very difficult.
“When it eventually did land it was the worst landing ever, how the plane didn’t turn over… I never hit a runway as fast. It was the worst one I ever had.”
The level of stress that was caused to people was very serious, he feels.
“There were loads of them crying with fear. One girl was projectile vomiting, I’m telling you now it was rough. I’ve been on a few rough flights, but that, without doubt, was the worst.”
He was due to meet friends who flew from Dublin at 2pm, and they actually arrived before him. “They landed in Birmingham before we did flying at twenty to eight in the morning. I had all the hotels booked and they were waiting for me to check in.”
Galway businessman Peter Carpenter was also on the flight and he said the amount of time waiting on the runway in Shannon was very extreme.
“We boarded at about 7.10am and it started to pick up and there was a delay, and obviously it was only going to get worse. I follow Carlow weather on Twitter and they’d be quite sharp and up to date and it was never going to ease up, there were cross winds going four, five, six knots over what they can take off in.
“We sat there for three hours, from 7.10 or 7.15 until 10.15 and then he says we have a window. He said then it’s got worse and we’ll have to wait again. So we waited until after 11am and eventually we took off.”
A nervous passenger himself at the best of times, he said some of the others on board were in very serious distress, with several people vomiting into sick bags.
He feels the flight should never have taken off and that the level of communication from Ryanair has been very poor, with little regard for the difficulties endured by their customers.
“There is a certain amount of decorum that was missed here, whether it was deliberately or inadvertently I don’t know, but you can’t treat customers like that. If I treated customers like that I’d be out of business.”
Ryanair was approached for comment, but had not replied at the time of going to print.
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.