A holidaymaker has described the "frightening" moment they were told their plane had to return to Manchester halfway through the flight after suffering a fault.
Scott Elliot had been travelling to Bodrum in Turkey with his family when they were informed by crew onboard the Jet2 flight that the plane would have to return to Manchester Airport.
The 40-year-old from Oldham said he and others 'could tell something wasn't quite right' when the aircraft took off, but 'thought it would be okay' as the plane carried on.
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But mid-way through the four-hour flight, Scott claims cabin crew announced that the plane would be making it's way back to it's departure airport where it would be greeted by emergency services.
His family and hundreds of other passengers were ejected from the plane and had to wait overnight for a replacement aircraft to be found to take them to Turkey.
Scott says he was left "dissapointed" with the travel firm after claims there was no support from Jet2 reps at the airport, and his 74-year-old mum and sister - who is disabled, were left waiting a long time for special assistance.
Jet2 have since apologised to Mr Elliot and other customers "affected" by the delay, and said the plane had been forced to make its way back to Manchester following a 'minor fault indication.'
Speaking to the M.E.N, Scott said: "It was a bit of a nightmare. The flight was due to take off at 4.30pm on September 9 and was delayed slightly which was fine.
"We boarded the plane and as we took off you could tell something wasn’t quite right. You could hear a strange rumbling but we just thought it would be okay as the pilot knew what he was doing.
"About half way through the flight the crew said we were going to have to return back to Manchester. They let us know that the police and fire crews would be meeting us on the runway and not to panic.
"When they first said we’d have to go back we thought okay but as we approached and circled the airport you could hear people getting quite upset. My mum and sister don’t fly much and they were really frightened.
"When the plane actually landed it bounced a lot and a few people hit their heads. It was that forceful. We were sat on the runway for about an hour - it was a nightmare."
Scott had been travelling with his 74-year-old mum and sister who had special access. He claimed they were left standing for an extra 45 minutes to be taken back to the terminal
"The first three days of holiday were lost because they couldn’t walk," he said. "Jet 2 were so unhelpful they just said to go home and come back the next day. I live in Oldham and didn’t want to pay all that money to go and come back again so we stayed in the airport.
"None of the reps came to check on us. We had to ask a member of staff at Starbucks to store one of our party's insulin in the fridge which thankfully they did."
A spokesperson for Jet2 said: "Flight LS983 from Manchester to Bodrum on 8 th September returned to Manchester Airport as a precaution, due to a minor fault indication.
"Due to the time of day, it was too late to swap customers onto a replacement aircraft, so customers were night stopped. We communicated the unforeseen delay to our customers as soon as possible, and our teams worked extremely hard to look after everyone.
"We can confirm that the aircraft departed Manchester for Bodrum the following day, and we would like to apologise to Mr Elliott and any other customers affected."
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