After an hour of a particularly bumpy flight caused by violent winds from Storm Marcel, the EasyJet Airbus first tried to land in Toulouse, but was unsuccessful.
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“A few meters off the ground, the flight suddenly had to speed up and take off again. It was like being on Space Mountain in Euro Disney,” said Angel, one of the passengers on this flight.
The pilot tried to land a second time, and it was even worse than the first attempt. According to Angel, “The landing gear hit the runway very hard and the pilot had to speed up to take off again.” The plane was so close to crashing and everyone on board became very panicked.
Finally, the plane diverted to Montpellier, about 2 hours 30 minutes from Toulouse by car, where the plane successfully landed at 18.15, an hour and a quarter after the first two unsuccessful attempts.
Impossible for passengers to get off the plane
After having landed, this hellish journey was not over and following orders from the low-cost airline, personnel on board were not authorised to let the 180 passengers off the plane. The pilot had even received orders to take off from Montpellier and try and land in Toulouse again.
According to Angel, the company didn’t want to stay in Montpellier because this would mean that passengers would claim compensation. He also added that “EasyJet hadn’t anticipated this. No water, no snacks and above all, no buses to Toulouse.”
EasyJet’s response
After the incident, the airline quickly published a statement apologising for not “being able to provide any transfers” for their clients to get them to Toulouse. EasyJet has also agreed to reimburse the full cost of additional transport to get passengers to their final destination.
Those responsible within the EasyJet company have said that their “pilots are highly qualified to perform this routine procedure and at no time was the safety of the passengers on board compromised,” they then added. “The safety and the wellbeing of the passengers and teams is always our first priority at EasyJet.”
