Heavy snow adds to woes of air travellers

It doesn't only happen in India but in Britain too.

Heavy snow in Britain, which threw flight schedules out of gear, led to passengers being trapped inside planes at major airports like Heathrow and Stansted for as long as 11 hours, allegedly without food and water.

Passengers even complained that by keeping them inside the plane for hours on end, the airlines were trying to avoid hotel costs. They recorded their complaints and comments on the Sky News website which asked stranded passengers register their woes.

"My mum got on a plane to Bangladesh from Heathrow, via Manchester, which all passengers boarded at 5.30pm. The passengers had been asked to be patient. The plane didn't leave for Manchester until 4.30am.

"At 9.40am in Manchester passengers still weren't given any food, although it had almost been 11 hours since their last meal. I think that the airline kept everyone in the plane to avoid hotel costs," said Sharmeen Choudhury.

Another person, Aman, said, "Passengers boarded a flight to Delhi at 9.30pm on Saturday. The plane never left the gate and they were kept on board for seven hours. The original flight time was only 8.5 hours to Delhi."

Yet another traveller Janice Beukes posted that after her flight was cancelled, a situation "like war was breaking out on the plane.

"We have been on a Ryanair flight at Stansted since 6.30am. We are still stuck on the ground. We have been told we just have to wait for de-icer and we can fly. De-icing now finished and they just announced flight cancelled and all getting off. It looks like war is breaking out on the plane."

British airport officials faced severe criticism for cancelling half of 1,300 flights yesterday when other airports in Europe operated as usual under worse snow conditions.

"Heathrow, have you not learnt your lesson? One year on, I have been sitting for six hours on the runway waiting for a de-icing truck! One turns up then one breaks down, and it's not even heavy snow," said a frustrated James Styles.

David Mulligan said, "At Stansted, many Ryanair staff didn't report for work so flights were cancelled. There are currently massive tailbacks at the check in desks with very irate passengers who are now expected to buy new flights."

Susan Currie, who had boarded a Ryanair flight, said that there was "total fiasco at Stansted Airport after Ryanair keep passengers held on a plane for six hours."

"Continually promising imminent departure, after the plane had been de-iced. After this, passengers were informed their flight was cancelled. People have been waiting in massive queues but no senior managers are available to deal with their concerns. Some passengers are totally stranded, one young Polish girl was in floods of tears."

An angry Andrew Brown narrated his tale, saying that on Saturday the snow began to fall over London at 6.30pm and they were asked to board at Heathrow at 8pm.

"At 10pm, they served drinks, and we knew exactly where we were going - nowhere. We were told it was just a delay. At 10.30pm, they de-iced the plane for the last time, another plane next to us returned from the runway with a lot of snow on the wings. At 11pm they served dinner. Still on the ground. You don't serve dinner if you're going to take off in 5 minutes," Brown said.

"It seems the new snow policy is to keep people on the planes, tired, uncomfortable and trapped. Letting us off would evidently be too expensive and too much trouble for them. Weren't BAA meant to have spent millions on preparing for the snow this year after the inquiry which was launched last year following the same madness," an infuriated Brown wrote.