AROUND 200 Irish passengers were left stranded at Larnaca Airport on Sunday, in what was just one of several incidents of international air travel chaos over the weekend.
The Helios airlines flight to Dublin was scheduled to take off at 3pm on Sunday afternoon. But Nicos Anastasiades, sales and marketing manager of Helios Airways, confirmed it had been delayed “due to a technical problem, which naturally had to be taken care of”.
He would not elaborate, but said the flight had finally left at 6pm yesterday evening.
“On Sunday, the plane was first delayed until midnight but that departure time was also put back. We fed all the passengers and brought them amenities, such as blankets and sheets and tried to look after them in the best way possible,” he said.
“Yesterday, the Helios schedule was running as close to normal as possible, but I can’t completely rule out delays, due to the fact that we currently don’t have enough aircraft to fulfil our schedule. As directed by Boeing, our planes are being checked out, with one yesterday in a Stockholm hangar, being inspected by SAS.”
Yesterday, the Civil Aviation Authority said that none of today’s planned Helios flights departing from Paphos International Airport were confirmed, “as advised by the handling agent, 2Serve.”
But Anastasiades said, “we are not confirming flights until we are sure we have secured aircrafts for flights. Some flights may even end up departing from Larnaca. Passengers are advised to contact either ourselves or their departure airport either the day before they are due to fly or at least a few hours beforehand.”
Yesterday, a Cyprus Airways flight, which brought home the seven bodies of the Cypriots killed in the Egyptian minibus accident, was delayed in Cairo for several hours due to technical problems.
Also yesterday, nine people were injured as they slid down emergency slides from a Qantas Airbus at Osaka Airport.
Most of the passengers, who were forced to make an emergency landing in Japan, have now arrived in Perth, shaken but relieved. The pilot made the emergency landing after the crew reported smoke in the cargo hold.
“When the power went out on the plane and the slides came out, and we were told to evacuate, it was a bit daunting,” one passenger said.
“Tell you the truth you didn’t have much time to think and sort of move out. And a lot of people were helping each other which was good.”
Michael Hogg told ABC News Online that he was concerned for his three children when the plane made the emergency landing.
“It was scary, they were shocked, there was shock, sickness et cetera, but they did it good overall, I think.”
The passengers have praised the efforts of the Qantas crew during the evacuation.
The flight crew have remained in Japan and will be interviewed by Japanese transport authorities.
On Saturday, a Northwest Airlines Boeing 757 from Seattle carrying 222 passengers blew four tires as it landed at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. There were no injuries reported.
And an Olympic Airways flight, scheduled to leave Larnaca for Salonica yesterday at 11.50am was delayed for three hours due to a technical problem. It departed later on in the afternoon.
