A mum says people were left "screaming" and in tears when it was revealed two people unauthorised people had boarded their flight back to the UK.
Lara Beasley, 42, was on a TUI flight from Cancun in Mexico to Manchester Airport on June 23, ready to take off when the pilot broke the news over the plane's public address system.
Fellow passengers went into "meltdown" after hearing the news, Lara said, until the rogue passengers were identified and escorted off the aircraft around half an hour later. One couple event demanded to get off the plane as well, she added.
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Lara had spent ten nights in the resort of Playa del Carmen in what was her first family holiday with partner Neil Beasley, 43, and their one-year-old daughter Faith.
However, the incident on their return flight meant they were grounded for several hours meaning the family's journey home eventually took over 20 hours. Lara has now hit out at TUI and officials at Cancun Airport over the distressing mix-up reports the Liverpool Echo.
“The pilot confirmed that there were two passengers who should not have been on the flight" she said. "Everyone was going into meltdown.
“They did not take us off the aircraft, they left us there. The pilot tried to diffuse the situation and the cabin crew were trying to be professional.
“You could see the anguish in people’s faces. I didn’t go to sleep for the whole ten hour flight on the way home.
“It was a horrible feeling, [TUI] didn’t put customers at the heart of it. 'Going the extra smile' is meant to be their strapline.
“But I do not understand why [Cancun Airport] did not check the people’s paperwork. How did [the other passengers] get past check-in?
“Anxiety was high leading up to the holiday due to the media build up of cancelled flights, lost luggage and issues with long queues. It put a dampener on the end of our holiday.
“We had no option [to fly back], it’s not like we could jump in a taxi. The whole situation was so strange.
“I have travelled to hundreds of places and that was the worst experience I have ever had.”
Lara, from Crosby, near Liverpool, used to work as a retail manager for TUI and spent 14 years in the travel industry. She said the experience was not what she expected from her former company.
The family should have landed in Manchester at 8am but did not arrive until 1pm. It then took more than two hours to receive their baggage from the airport.
Previously, 54-year-old Anna-Marie Watters from Westhoughton in Bolton told the Manchester Evening News passengers 'feared the worst' following the security breach.
She said two Russian passengers, said to have no visa or paperwork to allow them entry into the UK, were located but initially refused to get off and a "kerfuffle" ensued.
"I keep thinking about it now and crying," she said. "We should never have been put in that situation. Serious questions need to be asked to check-in and security."
Cancun Airport did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson from TUI said: “We’re aware of this incident and we take incidents of this nature extremely seriously.
“Our crew worked quickly to offload the passengers and their bags so the flight could depart. We’d like to apologise to all customers onboard for the inconvenience, and we’re providing additional training to our ground handling agents to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
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