It’s been a rough few weeks for the aviation industry stateside as winter storms and technical difficulties have caused mass delays and cancelations.
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And it looks like international airports haven’t been spared, either, after 23 Ryanair passengers were accidentally trapped in a locked corridor, causing sheer panic and a missed flight.
The horror began after passengers showed their boarding passes for their flight from London Stansted Airport to Zagreb, Croatia on January 2.
As a part of standard procedure, the passengers proceeded to the boarding corridor from the terminal to their flight. But the corridor itself was locked on both ends and had no windows, trapping 23 people inside. Panic ensued and passengers tried to get free.
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“People were banging on the walls calling for help, it felt like we were being held hostage or something,” passenger Devina Raval told MyLondon of the incident. “There were kids crying and the whole place became really claustrophobic. I dread to think what would have happened if someone had a heart attack or something.”
Raval said that eventually, someone pulled the fire alarm and a staff member came to rescue them — only to tell the group that they had missed their flight.
The passengers were put up in a hotel overnight, given a food voucher, and put back on the next flight out, which was 6 a.m. the following morning.
“Due to a human error by handling staff at London Stansted Airport, a small number of passengers could not exit the pre-boarding area doors and regrettably missed their flight to Zagreb (Jan 2),” a spokesperson for Ryanair told the outlet. “The error was soon realized however the flight had already departed.”
Ryanair is a popular discount airline based in Europe, often used for travelers to take short flights from one country to another.
The company is expected to announce a strong Q3 2022 on January 30 due to “pent-up travel demand over the holiday season for the first time in 3 years,” thanks to the slowdown of the pandemic and related restrictions.
Ryanair did not immediately respond to Entrepreneur‘s request for comment.