FLIGHTMARE
Furious TUI passengers try to rip door open to get their bags after 12-hour nightmare journey with cops called
PASSENGERS at their wits end went on a rampage yesterday after a 12 hour nightmare plane journey reportedly ended in some trying to rip open a door to get their luggage.
Cops were called in after TUI customers went berserk when their four hour flight from Turkey bound for Norwich was diverted 150 miles to Birmingham Airport.
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After disembarking the misery Dalaman flight at 3am, the latest victims of Britain's airport chaos were then told they had to wait four more hours to get their luggage.
Exhausted, some went into a rage, with a video showing passengers engaged in a furious row with airport staff as they tried to retrieve their belongings,
Amid chaotic scenes cops desperately tried to calm tempers as passengers based in East Anglia faced a monstrous trip home.
Some were left so enraged - including a man in his 60s with "late stage cancer" - they even booked taxis to get them home.
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Meanwhile those who had been promised busses found none had turned up when they finally got out the terminal - they had to wait up to an hour for them to arrive.
Catherine Arnold, 40, and her partner Tom, 41, were caught up in the chaos and said some passengers were forced to bed down on the floor following the half day-long hell.
Catherine, who filmed video, said: "When we got to Birmingham to go and fetch our suitcases, the bags didn't come out.
"It was horrendous because there were no staff in the room. We were stuck in there for four hours in total with pretty much no communication."
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With no representative sent to meet the distraught passengers, TUI apologised to customers in a text, citing a ramp failure for the delay.
They admitted it had let down passengers after Catherine's video circulated online.
Catherine added: "There was no TUI rep there until around 7am and we landed at 3.20am."
And she said how one woman begged for her pushchair to get her exhausted baby to sleep - the child ended up being put to sleep on the floor.
In the shocking video a passenger explains poor customer service from airport staff had been exacerbated by vending machines which only accepted coins and small notes.
The airport ATM only dished out £20 - leaving passengers at a complete loss.
Catherine added that once outside the airport people started to get fed up and it got heated, with cops called over "to diffuse the situation".
'NEVER FLYING WITH TUI'
She added: "Quite laughably, TUI sent us an email to say sorry and to offer us a £150 voucher off our next TUI holiday, which I thought was a kick in the teeth.
"We'll never be flying with TUI again after this."
A TUI spokesman said: "We’re really sorry to customers travelling on TOM713 from Dalaman to Norwich Airport, which was initially delayed due to an earlier flight delay because of bad .
"We then had to divert the aircraft to Birmingham Airport due to the curfew at Norwich Airport.
"Delays with baggage reclaim and transfers at Birmingham meant customers were unfortunately waiting at the airport much longer than they should have.
"We're investigating how this happened to prevent it from happening again.
"We've arranged transport for all customers who are now on their way back to Norwich and we've been in contact with them to apologise, explain how to claim compensation and provide a gesture of goodwill.
"We realise this isn't the level of service our customers usually receive and for that, we are sorry."
The chaos comes as TUI have struggled to keep control of their flight schedules - with one flight even getting delayed because staff were tired.
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Passengers on board the TOM269 flight on July 5 from İzmir Adnan Menderes Airport to Manchester Airport were stunned to see it postponed until the following morning.
And the carrier have been forced to make more cancellations as the crisis at UK airports, spurred by staff shortages and the fallout of the pandemic, deepens.
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