Distraught Ryanair passengers who were stuck on a plane for more than three hours called the police, begging them to come and get them off the plane at 3am after an eleven hour delay caused by bad weather.
The passengers, most of them on their way to holiday destinations, claim they were left without food and water while they were stuck on the aircraft at Stansted Airport.
A policeman eventually boarded the plane to help passengers, who were not allowed to disembark the plane by staff.
Video footage shows the desperate passengers arguing with the crew during the night-time standoff, with one passenger pleading "There's a baby on board!"
The flight to Porto eventually took off after an eleven hour delay; it was scheduled to leave at 8:30pm, but did not start boarding until after midnight, with the officer arriving at 3:25am to help people back into the terminal.
The video footage, shot from a passenger's mobile phone at 3:50am shows a woman saying "We have just got off the plane now after we had to call the police 50 times."
Eventually, at 6am, the weary passengers were allowed to get back on board, where the plane was held up for another two hours. The plane finally took off at 8am.
Ryanair, however, dispute the passenger's claims.
"The claim that passengers had to call the police is untrue; it was the captain who called the police. The flight was delayed by the weather disruption and a fuelling delay at the airport. After approximately two hours, the captain requested the handling company allow the passengers back into the locked terminal. It was when the handling company failed to arrive that we called the police. We did provide water to the passengers during this time."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
