More than three dozen Jet2 passengers saw their holidays thrown into disarray when their Alicante-bound flight departed from Manchester Airport without them on Monday morning.
Despite having their passports checked and boarding passes scanned, the passengers were left stranded in a terminal stairwell ahead of the 7am departure. The group waited for more than 40 minutes with no announcements or assistance, unaware that their aircraft had already taken off.
Travellers had expected airport staff to unlock the door at the bottom of the stairs or provide a bus to transport them to the plane. Instead, they were left in limbo as frustration mounted and no information was provided.
An airport employee eventually approached the group to ask why they were waiting in the stairwell, only to inform them that their flight had already departed.
Passengers were later told the incident was caused by an “error in stairwell directions given by cabin crew,” with Jet2 staff describing the situation as unprecedented.
One affected passenger told the media that he and his son had arrived at the gate with plenty of time to spare before confusion followed the initial boarding announcement.
“There were some stairs, and everyone just followed each other,” he said. “There were a lot of us.”
All affected passengers were issued £10 vouchers by the airline while they await rebooking on a later flight.
Jet2 has confirmed that an urgent investigation into the incident is now underway and is trying to work out how an aircraft could leave with passengers' luggage on board but no passengers on board.
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