The powerful storm caused dozens of flights to be diverted across Britain and Ireland on Sunday and Monday, spilling passengers to Germany, France and northern England. stranded Some overnight at the airport.
The airport said 166 flights were canceled at Dublin Airport on Sunday night, a further 29 flights were canceled on Monday, 36 flights were diverted to other airports and 34 aircraft made so-called “go-around” flights. ” In other words, the landing was aborted.
Graham McQueen, a spokesman for Dublin Airport, said in a statement to The New York Times that the airport remained open and operational on both Sunday and Monday despite the disruption to flights. Winds from the storm, dubbed Isha, weakened overnight Sunday and shifted to a more favorable westerly direction to allow for a “smooth first wave of flights.”
Steve Fox, head of network operations at UK air traffic control service NATS, said in a statement on Monday that the storm’s winds were causing difficulties for flight crews, with gusts of 70 to 75 mph across southern England and Ireland. He said he brought it. .Wind speeds exceeded 90 mph in the north
Fox said the planes that could not land safely were diverted to other airports.
“As storms swept across the country yesterday, we warned airlines that their usual diversion airfields may not be available and they will need to make plans to potentially divert further afield.” , added that the flight had been diverted to the “most dangerous destination.” affected,” but there was still space available “at key decision points in the pilot.”
Many of the Flight It is operated by low-cost airline Ryanair, which includes Manchester to Dublin It was repurposed in Paris and elsewhere From Stansted to Newquay in Englandit was diverted to Malaga, Spain.
Ryanair said some flights to and from British and Irish airports on Sunday and Monday were canceled or delayed as a result of the storm, and passengers on Monday’s flights were advised to keep up to date information on the Ryanair app. I called to confirm. It did not say how many flights were canceled, delayed or diverted.
The Ryanair flight from Budapest to London Stansted was scheduled to depart at 6pm on Sunday. But the two-and-a-half-hour flight turned into a 24-hour journey for Terrell Crossley and her boyfriend, who were heading home after a weekend away celebrating her birthday.
The pilot tried to land the plane twice but was unable to do so due to wind speeds, Crosley told the Times. Instead, the pilot diverted the plane to Manchester, about 200 miles northwest of his original destination.
“It was very tense and everyone sat in complete silence,” she wrote of the final descent. She said: “When we landed in Manchester, everyone praised the pilot and the passengers felt a sense of relief. Everyone was grateful to be on the ground.”
But after the plane landed, the passenger was held on the tarmac for two and a half hours, during which time a medical emergency occurred that required an ambulance, Crossley said. She did not hear from the pilot and she had no access to food or water, she said. Finally, the pilot told the passengers they could disembark at Manchester. Not all did so, and some eventually returned to Budapest. Ryanair did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ms Crossley and her boyfriend booked a hotel for the night in Manchester, caught a train to Stansted on Monday and finally arrived in London just before 6pm that day.
Greg Manahan, a Dublin-based television director, had just returned from a week’s holiday in Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands, when passengers on Sunday night’s Ryanair flight… I was told I couldn’t land in Dublin, which was about 20 hours away. Minutes away, you’ll be heading south to Bordeaux in France instead.
“Bordeaux is a long way from Dublin. We’re almost halfway back to Lanzarote,” Manahan said.
He said passengers had to wait on the plane for an hour after landing, and when they arrived at the airport, only one shop selling food was still open and “everything left was removed.”
Mr Manahan said passengers were directed to a line where accommodations would be set up. However, after arriving in Bordeaux around 6.30pm, they were still at the airport at 11pm. At that point, many people, including Manahan, decided to find hotel rooms on their own.
Mr Manahan said the new flight to Dublin departed on Monday morning after an hour delay and arrived around 11am, almost 24 hours after the flight from Lanzarote took off.