Ryanair responds to 11-hour 'no food or water' Stansted flight delay reports

Ryanair has responded to claims that police were called and passengers left with no food or water on a plane for 11 hours at Stansted Airport last week.

Reports of the 'mutiny' on board the plane, heading from Stansted to Porto on 14 February, emerged at the end of last week, suggesting that things got so bad the police were called in.

The airline said strong winds caused more than 20 airlines to divert from Heathrow and Gatwick to Stansted, causing significant disruption and a fuelling delay at the airport.

The flight was scheduled to leave at 8.30pm, but passengers did not start boarding until around midnight. They were then stuck on the plane for three hours, some said, without refreshments.

But Ryanair have now said it was actually the captain that called the police, and that cabin crew did hand out water.

According to ITV News, a statement from Ryanair said: "After approximately two hours waiting for fuellers, the captain requested the handling company (Swissport) to allow the passengers into the terminal which was locked.

"The captain switched on the aircraft's air conditioning while waiting for Swissport staff to arrive and the cabin crew provided water to passengers.

"When Swissport failed to arrive the captain requested the police to let the passengers into the locked terminal."

According to Travel Weekly, the statement added: "The police subsequently arrived and allowed the passengers into the terminal. Passengers were then provided with refreshment vouchers on Ryanair's instructions.

"The aircraft departed the following morning at 7.50am. Ryanair sincerely apologises to all passengers on this flight who were affected by this delay."

A spokesman for Swissport told the Daily Telegraph: "Swissport staff were under extreme pressure dealing with an unprecedented level of flights and whilst we accept we should have unloaded the passengers sooner we simply had no one available to unload when contacted by the captain. Swissport regret any delay to passengers and to Ryanair."

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