A Ryanair flight yesterday from Fes, Morocco, departed 3 hours late, which resulted in the aircraft arriving too late to land in Beauvais, France, because the airport by then was closed. The flight ended up having to land in Liege, Belgium, and 100 of the passengers, mostly French, were so angry, they staged their own protest and refused to leave the plane.
Unable to make the passengers disembark, the toilets were locked, the plane was shut down leaving the aircraft dark, and the crew and pilots departed, leaving the cockpit door and cabin door open. The passengers sat in the plane for 4 hours until 3:30 am when airport officials were able to convince them they would be taken by bus to their original destination.
“This is unacceptable,” Mylene Netange, who runs a network on social responsibility for business leaders, told AFP, “The plane didn’t land in Beauvais but in Liege without warning us. Consequently, we refused to leave the plane.”
Ryanair could not be reached for comment.