A British family says they are facing a “journey from hell” after their easyJet flight was cancelled at the gate twice – and they had to take over the tannoy announcements to update passengers themselves.
Lee McGreevy, 43, was due to fly back to Bristol with wife Carla, 44, and their 17-year-old son Ethan after a week-long holiday in Icmeler, Turkey.
But their journey home descended into chaos when their original flight from Dalaman Airport on Saturday (22 August) was cancelled after they had already spent more than two hours waiting at the gate.
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Lee, from Sheffield, said passengers were told the aircraft had suffered a technical problem, with a fire engine seen alongside the plane.
The family was eventually rebooked onto a flight to Manchester – only for the nightmare to happen all over again.
After spending more than 14 hours at the airport, their new flight, scheduled for the early hours of Tuesday (25 August) was repeatedly delayed.
Passengers eventually spent another two hours waiting at the gate.
But after being awake for around 27 hours, Lee and his family were dealt another crushing blow when the replacement flight was also cancelled.
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And in a bizarre twist, Carla ended up stepping in to help.
After previously assisting ground staff during the first cancellation, she was asked to use the airport tannoy to explain passport and baggage procedures to stranded passengers.
Lee said his wife effectively became an “unofficial, unpaid representative” for easyJet, with footage of her addressing the crowd later shared on TikTok.
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“My wife had to step up to the tannoy to calm down a crowd of panicked passengers because easyJet had no presence on the ground,” Lee told What’s The Jam.
“It felt like absolute Groundhog Day – utter disgust, total exhaustion and sheer frustration.
“Experiencing a gate cancellation once is distressing, but watching it happen a second time after being awake for 27 straight hours pushes you to your absolute physical and mental limit.”
The pilot reportedly told passengers the inbound crew had exceeded their working hours and the aircraft had needed to make an emergency stop in Milan for replacement crew.
But the situation reportedly became even more complicated after several passengers fell ill after landing.
Lee claimed six people vomited and some members of the cabin crew also became unwell.
The aircraft was subsequently deemed unfit for passengers and the crew unfit to fly.
Lee said the announcement sparked “pure chaos” as exhausted and angry passengers demanded answers.
He claims there were no easyJet representatives present, leaving Turkish ground staff to deal with the fallout.
The family says they were then offered a mammoth indirect journey home via Edinburgh.
The route would involve a six-hour wait, followed by a connecting flight to Gatwick and an Uber to Bristol to collect their car before finally driving home to Sheffield.
Lee claims other passengers affected by the first cancellation were offered direct flights, leaving his family feeling they had been treated unfairly.
He said: “After being cancelled a second time, easyJet showed zero empathy.”
The family have been stranded since Saturday and were initially put up in a hotel around ten minutes from Dalaman Airport.
Lee described conditions there as poor, claiming they were served cold chips for breakfast and had to pay extra for basic drinks outside meal times.
He said the family spent more than £100 eating at a nearby restaurant, around £30 a day on canned drinks and more than £200 at the airport on food, drinks, Wi-Fi and power banks.
Lee said: “My priority was just keeping my family safe, fed and sane.
“I couldn’t believe the complete lack of basic human empathy from easyJet, leaving families stranded repeatedly with zero real-time updates.”
He claimed exhausted passengers were left lying on the airport floor, with some families in tears as departure times repeatedly changed before the eventual cancellation.
Lee added: “The roller coaster of flight updates – delays jumping from two hours, to four hours, down to one hour, back to four, then six, before two final cancellations – was psychological torture.”
EasyJet was approached to comment on the incidents, and said:
“We are very sorry for the family’s experience when returning from their holiday in Dalaman when their original flight home was unable to operate due to the aircraft requiring an engineering inspection, and their rebooked flight being cancelled due to the crew being unfit to operate.”
“The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is our highest priority and our crew have a responsibility in line with safety regulations to declare if they do not feel fit to operate.
“We take our customer welfare responsibilities seriously and while our easyJet holidays on holiday support team arranged hotel accommodation and meals for the duration of their delay, and rebooked them alternative flights to Bristol, we fully understand the difficulty this will have caused.
“We are in touch with the family to apologise, ensure they are reimbursed for any expenses and understand more about their experience at the gate, which we will be looking into with the airport as this is not the level of support we expect for our customers.”
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