Detoured twice, how the London-Tirana flight turned into a 12-hour nightmare

A trip that was supposed to last only a few hours turned into a 12-hour odyssey for passengers on a Ryanair flight from London to Tirana.

Due to bad weather, the plane was forced to divert twice, while tensions on board reached a peak in Greece, where police intervened to calm the situation.

The case was reported by GB News , citing passenger testimonies and the airline's response.

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A Ryanair flight turned into a 12-hour nightmare after bad weather forced the plane to land twice in two different countries.

Flight RK8288 departed from London Stansted Airport for Tirana at 16:00 on June 3, and was expected to arrive in Albania within three hours.

Instead, passengers were notified of diversions to Brindisi, Italy, and Thessaloniki, Greece, after thunderstorms prevented the plane from landing at Tirana Airport.

The plane finally landed in the Albanian capital at 5:00 a.m. local time, about nine hours late.

But during the second stop, in Greece, police were called aboard the plane to restore order after angry passengers began confronting crew members.

The plane was packed with noisy groups of young people traveling for bachelor parties and young passengers carrying bottles of vodka purchased at duty-free, on the eve of the festival season in the Balkan country.

Some British passengers were reportedly visibly drunk before the plane took off.

A source told the Mail newspaper that food and water ran out during the long delays.

Initially, passengers were denied the opportunity to purchase food and drinks while the plane was on the tarmac in Italy.

When sales finally resumed, everything sold out quickly, except for a few packets of chips.

A seriously intoxicated passenger refused to follow instructions and began wandering around the aircraft cabin.

A flight attendant was forced to physically stop him.

"She literally grabbed him, picked him up like a baby and pushed him back into his seat... it was crazy," the source said.

When the plane arrived in Thessaloniki, the passengers organized what the source described as a "rebellion" against the captain.

"He's a coward, the pilot needs to come out and face us like a man!" a group of angry men shouted towards the cockpit.

About 12 passengers declared that they would no longer stay on board, telling the pilot: "There's no way you're keeping us here."

Greek police then boarded the plane and are believed to have told the crew to allow the disgruntled passengers to leave.

"People were shouting at the cockpit, calling them cowards and telling them to come out and face them like men," the passenger said.

"Everyone lost their temper," he added.

 
But the source told the newspaper that his attempt to claim compensation was automatically rejected as soon as he entered the flight number.

"It was an automatic rejection as soon as I put in the flight number. I got an automatic email saying, 'Your request has been rejected,'" he said.

He has now escalated the complaint through AviationADR, in an attempt to secure a refund.

In correspondence first received by the Daily Mail, Ryanair stated that the flight had been "terminated due to unexpected and extraordinary circumstances, which were beyond our control."

A Ryanair spokesperson said the diversions occurred due to poor weather conditions at Tirana Airport and a subsequent storm.

The airline added that the crew opened the onboard bars after 45 minutes so that passengers could get food and drinks.