Tui passengers ‘smell smoke’ on flight forced to return to Manchester airport after 15-hour delay

Holidaymakers have described a “nightmare” experience with Tui after their flight took off following a 15-hour delay, before having to turn back to Manchester airport again due to a technical issue.

Passengers were due to depart at 6.10am on 24 June for an all-inclusive Tui holiday to Dalaman, Turkey.

By the time the repeatedly delayed service took off, it was 9pm – 15 hours later than scheduled.

But the drama continued, when an hour into the flight it was forced to return to Manchester again due to what Tui has called a “technical issue”.

Some passengers claimed to have smelled smoke onboard, reports the Manchester Evening News.

The plane was met by fire engines back at the airport, but exhausted travellers were not permitted to disembark for another hour.

There was a further wait for transport to take them to hotel accommodation across Manchester, with some passengers told to be ready to get picked up by coach at 5am the following morning for their rescheduled flight.

However, several passengers said that the promised coaches never showed up, leaving them to fork out for taxis back to the airport.

The new flight was scheduled for 9am on 25 June; further delays meant it didn’t take-off until the afternoon, a delay of around 30 hours in total.

Passenger Maria Cooper, who was travelling with her partner, told MEN that everyone was “traumatised” and “like zombies” after the “nightmare” experience.

“It’s genuinely abysmal, it’s not acceptable to be treating people like this for such a big company. It’s shameful,” she said

“You honestly couldn’t write it. We were an hour into the flight after all the delays and had to come back, the pilot and onboard staff were amazing but it was really scary still.

“People are trying to keep in high spirits and everyone is trying to help each other, especially the families with lots of big bags and young kids, but it has stressed everyone out so much. Kids have been crying a lot they’re so upset.”

She claimed that no one from Tui had been at the airport to help.

“There’s been no communication or anything at all,” she said.

A TUI spokesperson said: “We’d like to apologise to customers travelling on TOM822 from Manchester Airport to Dalaman which was unfortunately delayed due to a technical issue.

“We aim to communicate with customers as quickly as we can if there are any changes to their holiday and offer transport, overnight accommodation, meals and refreshments as needed.”