Jet2 passengers were left 'traumatised' as a grieving family were forced to wait 46 hours after their flight home was delayed. Kelly Orford took her sons on a holiday to Turkey following the death of their father just weeks before but were left with a 'disastrous' end to their trip, reports Manchester Evening News.
Kelly's partner, Henry Naga, died in August after the security guard was found unconscious at his workplace in the early hours of the morning. Paramedics raced to the incident but were unable to save the 43-year-old, who died at the scene.
After the heartbreak of the sudden death of her partner and her children's father, the family were scheduled for a trip abroad paid for by Kelly's mother. Whilst still in grieving, Kelly says she was initially reluctant to go on the vacation.
However, the 40-year-old eventually agreed as she believed it would it would be a good thing for her children, Mekhi, 10 and Kaian, five, to get away for the week in the sun. At the end of their trip the family headed to the airport for their flight back to Manchester from Antalya.
However, they were informed that there was hydrologic fluid leaking from the plane and new parts had to be ordered to fix the issue. In the meantime, Kelly was told they had to stay at a hotel which was almost an hour away from the airport.
The following day, the family returned to the airport and boarded the aircraft before being told it hadn’t been fixed yet and they would need to wait another two hours.
But four hours later, the family claim they were still sat on the runway without food or water – with “people collapsing” and “children being sick”.
When they were finally let off the plane, Kelly claims they had to wait another four hours just to be told the flight had been cancelled. The family were then transferred back to the hotel for the second time.
On October 23, the flight finally left Antalya for Manchester at 10.30am - 46 hours after it was supposed to leave. Kelly says she couldn’t stop crying following the ordeal.
“It was traumatising,” she said. “I’m so sad for everyone, but mainly my babies, as this was supposed to be a reliever from the worst time in their lives.
“Since we’ve been back, if someone asks my five-year-old how his holiday was, he doesn’t talk about the fun things. He talks about the plane disaster.
"My son has health anxiety since his daddy died – putting him back on a broken plane has traumatised him. Every time we were transferred, we had to go through arrivals and then security.
"I currently have four stamps on my passport because of the amount of time we had to travel in and out. Most people’s suitcases have also been snapped or broken – mine is completely broken – so no care given to our belongings either.
“It made the worst times of our lives even worse. I’m an emotional wreck. It’s turned my plane-loving boy into a nervous wreck; I now have a battle on my hands trying to convince him to get on a plane so he can see his dad’s resting place and family in Uganda in January. We were treated like caged animals.”
A spokesperson for Jet2 told the Manchester Evening News it wanted to offer its “sincere apologies” to Kelly and her family for the unforeseen delay.
In a statement, Jet2.com said: “We would like to offer our sincere apologies to Ms Orford and her family, as well as all the other customers affected by the unforeseen delay, which was caused after the flight deck crew correctly followed standard procedure after noticing a minor fault indication.
“Although we understand the enormous inconvenience that this causes, we will never compromise on putting everyone’s comfort, safety and well-being first. We provided customers with hotel accommodation on both nights, and our teams worked tirelessly to look after everyone.
"We can confirm that a replacement aircraft flew out to Antalya on Sunday (23rd October) and customers were flown home that same evening.”
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"We can confirm that a replacement aircraft flew out to Antalya on Sunday (23rd October) and customers were flown home that same evening.”
