Dozens of Jet2 passengers had their holidays plunged into chaos after their flight bound for Alicante on Monday took off without them in front of their eyes.
Holidaymakers found themselves trapped in a Manchester Airport terminal stairwell, despite having presented their passports and scanned their boarding passes for the flight, which was scheduled to depart at 7am.
Desperate flyers waited for around 40 minutes without any communication before discovering their plane had left without them.
The stranded travellers had expected airport staff to either unlock the doors leading up the stairs or dispatch a bus to transport them to the aircraft.
Instead, they remained in limbo with no updates or assistance, growing increasingly frustrated as time went on.
An airport employee eventually approached the group to ask what they were doing - at which point he delivered the devastating news that their flight had already departed.
Passengers were subsequently told that an "error on the stairwell directions" was responsible for the chaos.
Jet2 personnel told those affected that such a mix-up was unprecedented.
Dozens of Jet2 passengers had their holidays plunged into chaos
|GETTY
One would-be flyer, Matt, told the Manchester Evening News how he and his son had cleared security and arrived at the gate in good time, only for confusion to set in after the initial boarding announcement.
"There were some stairs so the herd mentality is that we all went down the stairs and followed each other. There was a lot of us," he said.
"We were literally stuck like caged animals."
The father likened the farcical circumstances to an episode of Fawlty Towers.
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The incident occurred at Manchester Airport's Terminal 2
| GETTYThe affected passengers have since been issued £10 vouchers by the holiday firm while they wait for a flight at a later date.
Jet2 has confirmed that a probe into the incident has been launched "as a matter of urgency".
A spokesman for the airline said: “We are aware that flight LS879 from Manchester to Alicante departed without some customers this morning.
“We are investigating this as a matter of urgency with the airport.
The airline confirmed it had arranged alternative flights to Alicante for the affected passengers
|GETTY
“Our team are looking after these customers, and we have already arranged for them to take other flights to Alicante today.
“We would of course like to apologise to these customers.”
Jet2 carries tens of millions of passengers every year, with just under 20 million holidaymakers using the airline in the year to March 2025.
It operates out of 14 airports across Britain, including major travel hubs such as London Stansted, Edinburgh and Birmingham.
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