Dublin Airport was the centre of chaos after a Ryanair flight to Amsterdam was delayed for six hours because of a cracked toilet pipe.
An odd inconvenience
Flight FR3104 from Dublin Airport to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol was initially scheduled to depart at 3:30pm and the aircraft was due to land at Schiphol at 4:40pm.
Passengers however did not arrive in Amsterdam until 11 pm.
So what went wrong?
A passenger speaking to DublinLive said that delays started to emerge when it was time to board: “the gate was due to open at 2:40 but we were left standing there until half 3.”
Finally, passengers were on board and the plane began to taxi. But then the pilot informed everyone that the toilets on the aircraft were broken. Everyone disembarked and was made to wait a long 4 hours:
“We were left sitting there for about 20 minutes as the pilot kept coming over the intercom to tell us there was no update. He said they were trying to fix the pipe from the outside and that there was no other planes in Dublin at that time to transfer to.”
A new flight to Amsterdam was delayed to 6:20 pm and later extended by another hour because the replacement aircraft had yet to arrive from London. Ryanair later clarified that this was because of a lack of Air Traffic Control slots being available.
Four and a half hours after the initial take-off time, the flight was set to take off. However, there was yet another delay when a flight attendant reportedly injured themselves and required medical attention. According to one passenger, it seemed to be becoming a “never-ending airport nightmare we’d keep waking up to”.
A statement from Ryanair said that the initial flight from Dublin Airport to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport was delayed initially because of the toilet being broken. Subsequent delays were caused by a lack of Air Traffic Control slots blocking a replacement flight to arrive at Dublin Airport sooner. The statement reads:
“While Ryanair quickly arranged an alternative aircraft for this flight to minimise the disruption to passengers, Air Traffic Control slot delays led to a further delay before departing for Amsterdam at 19.35 (local time) – 4hrs 5mins after its scheduled departure time. Affected passengers were notified of the delay via emails and push notifications through their Ryanair App. Ryanair sincerely apologises to customers for this unfortunate delay.”
The passengers finally made it to Amsterdam, albeit six hours later than initially intended after experiencing the kind of airport ordeal we all dread to imagine!
Have you experienced delays for a not-so-conventional reason? Let us know your thoughts on this story in the comments below.
