A mum travelling with her son and daughter from Mexico back to the UK with TUI says the plane had to stop on the runway and return to the gate after two illegal Russian passengers were found on board. Anna-Marie Watters, 54, was travelling with her 18-year-old son Devon and 21-year-old daughter Taryn and was on the plane home, when it turned away from the runway seconds after being cleared for take-off.
Anna-Marie says the captain made an announcement that two passengers were on board illegally, with no visa or paperwork to allow them entry into the UK, and had to be removed, reports MEN. She said: "People were wondering how on earth had two people got on a chartered flight without any documentation. It was very scary and it should not have been happening."
Anna-Marie said the two Russian passengers were located but refused to get off. She said: "We were told to put all phones away and not to video what was happening. "
She said passengers began to panic, adding: "People were crying, some people were getting their luggage down from over-head, it was horrendous." Anna-Marie says the pilot came out to speak to the passengers but they were left for two hours on the stationary plane at the terminal. She says it took about half an hour for the crew to get the illegal passengers off the plane.
She says an announcement was then made that a suspicious package had been located on the plane and they were investigating what it was. She says: "After the passengers were removed there was another announcement that a 'suspicious package' had been found on the plane and they were investigating
"It took about fifteen minutes before they reassured us it was an 'e-cig' but in that time people were very scared and wondered why we were not being taken off the plane. It was horrendous, it was unbelievable. "
Anna-Marie says they were left unnerved for the remainder of the 10-hour flight. She said: "I keep thinking about it now and crying. We should never have been put in that situation. Serious questions need to be asked to check-in and security."
A spokesperson for 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.
"We have no records of the ‘suspicious package’ so we will be unable to comment on this. Please be assured, if this had happened, it would have been recorded by our crew."
