A passenger has told how a flight was delayed for six hours at Dublin Airport as chaos reigned after a toilet with a cracked pipe onboard a Ryanair plane was flushed by accident.
And confusion at the airport involving the plane going to Amsterdam also meant some passengers missing their separate flight from Dublin to Naples, reports Dublin Live.
Flight FR3104 was due to depart Dublin Airport at 3.30pm as it began its journey to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam but the expected one hour and ten-minute journey soon turned into a six-hour odyssey leading to passengers not arriving in the Netherlands until after 11pm local time.
One passenger on the flight recalled the delays beginning as they were queuing up to board.
He said: "The gate was due to open at 2:40, but we were left standing there until half 3.
"I didn't think much of it, it's a standard thing to be a little bit late, but when we were stuck on the tarmac not being allowed on board, it began to get a bit suspicious."
Eventually, passengers got on at around 3.45pm, and the aircraft began to taxi out before a warning message from the pilot.
"The captain came over the radio to explain that the toilets weren't working on-board," the witness said.
"There was a bit of a fight at the top of the plane, I think someone had gone in and flushed it when they really shouldn't have. One of the flight crew said there was a cracked pipe, which they had patched up but had broken again, and the captain pulled up after he had started moving.
"We were left sitting there for about 20 minutes as the pilot kept coming over the intercom to tell us there was no update. He said they were trying to fix the pipe from outside and that there was no other planes in Dublin at that time to transfer to.
"Eventually, at about 20 to 5, we were forced back off."
The aircraft dropped the passengers off and the new flight was set to take off at 6:20pm, but that was eventually delayed to 7:20pm as a replacement aircraft had reportedly not arrived.
Then the situation deteriorated as more passengers arrived in the departure lounge for a flight to Naples.
The witness said: "The gate where our flight was displayed said "gate closed" and that the flight had got delayed again - but there was a woman at the gate encouraging people to come forward to fly to Naples.
"The Naples flight wasn't displayed on the screen at all, and she just had to shout over everyone in a lounge that was packed to bursting.
"Eventually, people copped it, but it seemed like a good few people missed it. I think there were two announcements for final boarding, but they were difficult to make out over the noise.
"One woman got there and begged to be let on, saying it was an emergency and that she had to get home, but the flight was long gone. Her English wasn't great, so she didn't really understand what had happened, and she ended up in hysterics at the staff.
"One group of people around our age, about six of them, got there an hour after it was gone. Another group on our flight nearly ended up in Naples themselves when they just strolled through somehow.
"And an old woman on our flight also went mad because she left her luggage on the plane - the plane we now weren't getting back on. I don't think she got her bags back off at all."
After the Naples fiasco, the departure gate for the Amsterdam flight was then changed again to an upstairs gate and another delay, this time to an 8:35 flight.
Eventually, a replacement aircraft did arrive and the flight was all ready to go, until a flight attendant fell on the plane stairs and needed an ambulance.
"There were two ambulances around the plane's left and a gaggle of flight crew at the bottom of the stairs to board at the front of the plane," the witness said.
"A female flight attendant had gone over on herself and fallen right down the stairs. She must have got some whack as we were told to watch out for blood on the ground!
"We all immediately thought that was it, no flight crew now, we're never getting out of here. It was the never-ending airport nightmare we'd keep waking up to.
"But they were a different crew. We had the same crew from the original flight, so we were okay. The woman seemed okay too, she was brought to the ambulance, but she was up and chatting."
The flight finally departed Dublin just after 9pm, and made a smooth journey over to Amsterdam.
A Ryanair spokeswoman told Dublin Live: “This flight from Dublin to Amsterdam (20 May) was delayed due to an issue with the aircraft lavatories.
"While Ryanair quickly arranged an alternative aircraft for this flight to minimise the disruption to passengers, Air Traffic Control slot delays led to a further delay before departing for Amsterdam at 19.35 (local time) – 4hrs 5mins after its scheduled departure time.
"Affected passengers were notified of the delays via email. Ryanair sincerely apologises to customers for this unfortunate delay."
