EasyJet compensation verdict as teen tries to open door mid-air and passengers stranded
EXCLUSIVE: Passengers were left in a ‘dump’ of a hotel after a teen became angry with a 10-year-old girl’s cough, telling her to stop and following her to the toilet – but now have been told whether they can get a refund
EasyJet has said it won’t be giving compensation to customers who claim they were subjected to terrible hotel conditions after their plane was forced to land when a teen tried to open the door mid-flight.
Passengers have claimed they were put up in a “dump” of a hotel after a row onboard led to the flight to Gatwick from Antalya in Turkey on December 27, being forced to divert to Bari in Italy due to a teen who needed to be was pinned down while threatening to stab staff. The teen in question is understood to have been arrested following the incident, after also throwing a shoe at passengers, according to a witness.
Eyewitness onboard the flight, Nadine, 39, from Reading, told the Sun how they were shepherded to a hotel in Bari that left her “horrified”.
Despite this, a spokesperson for easyJet told the Daily Star: “As the cause of the diversion was a disruptive passenger and outside of the airline’s control, in line with regulations compensation is not due.”
The airline did however say previously it would reimburse “any expenses incurred”.
Despite this, Nadine painted a bleak picture of the reality inside the hotel. “When we ran the tap it was misty water, and we hadn’t drank in hours… We had two single beds, the sheets were filthy… The room was freezing cold with only a little radiator which didn’t even work,” she said.
She added in the bathroom there was “all the mould on the floor. The door didn’t even lock.” She added: “The next morning I saw the hotel in the light – what a dump! There were broken windows and rubbish piled up.”
The incident is understood to have occurred after the teen became angry with a 10-year-old girl’s cough, telling her to stop and following her to the toilet. Cabin crew are reported to have tried to calm her down, however, during this period she threatened to stab them, with the pilot being forced to land due to safety reasons.
EasyJet said in another statement made to the Daily Star: “Flight EZY8556 from Antalya to London Gatwick on 27th December diverted to Bari and was met by police due to a passenger behaving disruptively onboard. easyJet’s cabin crew are trained to assess and evaluate all situations and acted quickly and appropriately to ensure that the safety of the flight and other passengers was not compromised at any time. Whilst such incidents are rare we take them very seriously and do not tolerate abusive or threatening behaviour onboard.
“As this led to the crew feeling unfit to operate, the flight was delayed overnight and scheduled to operate the following day. The safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew is always easyJet’s priority and while this was outside of our control, we are sorry for the inconvenience this will have caused and did all we could to minimise the impact of the diversion, providing hotel accommodation and meals and advised customers we will reimburse any expenses incurred.”
