Two octogenarians who waited 70 years for their honeymoon were stuck on board a plane for 13 hours – only to get off at the exact same place they departed from.
Geoff Bliss, 84, and his wife Sheila, 80, both from Weston-super-Mare, first met as teenagers but only tied the knot last month as pensioners.
Yet their planned 7.20am flight from Bristol to Madeira’s Funchal Airport on Monday soon ended up as a nightmare as they were forced to endure a 13 and a half hour trip – which ended back in Bristol.
Their flight, which was scheduled to only take three hours and 40 minutes from Bristol, failed to land twice at their destination and had to make to stops to refuel.
The easyJet plane also ran out of food, leaving the newlyweds with just a packet of peanuts to eat each which the plane charged customers for.
Geoff Bliss, 84, and new wife Sheila, 80, married on September 30 and were due to travel to Madeira for their holiday
Mr Bliss said that their holiday had been ‘totally ruined’ by the disaster and that his wife had ‘refused point blank’ to ever go on a plane again.
He said: ‘Our friends and neighbours all said, “What the hell are you doing back here? You’re supposed to be on holiday”.
‘I felt the way they handled things wasn’t very good. My wife has refused point blank to ever go on a plane again.’
The flight was forced to turn around due to strong winds which made it incapable of landing.
Mr Bliss said: ‘We made one attempt to land but it was just so dangerous he had to abort.’
The plane was forced to re-route to Tenerife – more than 300 miles away from Madeira – where it began to refuel.
Yet when landing in Tenerife, passengers like Sheila, who suffers from arthritis in her knee, were made to sit on board the plane as it headed back to its intended location.
The plane then re-routed in Faro, Portugal, one hour and fifteen minutes away – but the collapse of easyJet rival Monarch meant that passengers were again kept on the plane as there were no hotel vacancies.
Yet the couple, from Weston-super-Mare, arrived back at Bristol Airport after flying 3,713 air miles due to a series of blonders
The pilot then got the call to bring customers back to Bristol airport, where they were offered another flight at 5.30am the next morning – yet Sheila and her husband could not face another repeat and decided to go home.
In total, the couple ended up totting a staggering 3,713 air miles of what was supposed to be a 1,480 trip in total – and could have flown to Mexico, Singapore or even Mauritius in that time.
A spokesman for easyJet said: ‘EasyJet can confirm that, like other airlines, some of its flights to and from Funchal early this week have been unable to land or depart.
My wife has refused point blank to ever go on a plane again
‘This has been due to high winds at the airport gusting above the limits of the aircraft.
‘This meant that some inbound flights had to divert to Faro, Porto Santo and the Canary Islands and flights due to depart from Funchal had to be delayed overnight.
‘Three flights on Monday from London Gatwick, Edinburgh and Manchester had to be diverted before returning to the UK.
‘This meant the flights and return sectors had to be cancelled. Passengers on cancelled flights were booked on to the next available flights.
EasyJet has apologised for the delay and said that ‘did everything possible to minimise the disruption for our customers’
‘EasyJet did everything possible to minimise the disruption for our customers, securing over 500 hotel rooms for those who required them.
‘EasyJet will be reimbursing anyone who sourced their own accommodation and expenses.
‘Our ground staff were on hand throughout to keep customers informed and they were provided with refreshments whilst in the airport.
‘Arrangements were made in Porto Santo to transport passengers to and from Funchal by chartering a ferry.
‘The safety of its passengers and crew is the airline’s highest priority.
‘Whilst this is outside of our control we would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused as a result of the weather conditions.’