High winds and heavy rain on Saturday afternoon brought a second day of disruption at Guernsey Airport, with several flights cancelled and one aircraft having to return to the UK after being unable to safely disembark passengers.
The British Airways flight from Heathrow sat on the stand for more than two hours after winds were too high for steps to be brought to the plane to allow the passengers to disembark. At one point the 26 passengers on board thought they would have to spend the night on the plane.
The pilot had warned them that although it was windy in the island, it was within limits and the airport had confirmed it would receive the flight.
‘We took off and landed on time. The pilot described it as a “fairly sporting” approach and I was very impressed,’ said passenger advocate Russell Clark, who had already had a flight cancelled on Friday by the storm.
‘We landed, taxied round and we were on a stand next to the tower, but five minutes later the pilot said he was told it was too windy for them to bring the stairs to get us off.
‘Everything was within limits for the plane. It seems that it was Guernsey’s infrastructure that wasn’t capable of dealing with these sorts of winds.’
Mr Clark said that passengers were frustrated, but accepted the situation in good humour.
‘We sat there for two-and-a-half hours being bounced about because it was quite windy. Then they said we needed a new flight plan and we were being delayed because of the weather in the UK,’ he said.
‘If the wind had got any stronger, they weren’t going to push us back, in which case they were contemplating us sleeping on the plane overnight.’
The flight had landed in Guernsey in winds above 45 knots before 5pm, and returned to Heathrow at about 7pm.
Passengers were put up in hotels overnight by the airline.
Mr Clark commended the crew, who he said handled the situation really well.
‘If you live in Guernsey long enough, you know you will have disrupted travel due to the weather, and everyone accepts that is part of the joy of living in the English Channel, but I’ve never made it to the island before, only to be told that for health and safety reasons they can’t bring steps out to get you off the plane,’ he said.
British Airways also put up 128 passengers who were waiting to travel to Heathrow.
Aurigny cancelled all remaining flights after 4.15pm on Saturday, leaving approximately 300 people unable to travel. It warned that rebookings might be difficult for some passengers in an already busy period.
British Airways upgraded to a larger A320 Neo aircraft and operated an additional rotation in the afternoon to clear the backlog of passengers.
The disruption occurred as winds picked up after flights generally went to schedule on Saturday morning. Airport director Richard Thomasson said his teams had gone through two challenging days.
‘Unfortunately the onset of the higher winds during the afternoon brought further disruption for our airline partners,’ he said. ‘Our priority, first and foremost, is always the safety of both the travelling public and that of our own staff.’
Yesterday, flights operated almost as normal with just a few short delays.
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