Heavy storm sends flights from one country to another

A powerful storm diverted dozens of flights in Britain and Ireland on Sunday and Monday, sending passengers to Germany, France and northern Britain. stranding some at airports at night.

At Dublin Airport, 166 flights were canceled on Sunday night, a further 29 flights were canceled on Monday, 36 flights were diverted to other airports and 34 aircraft carried out so-called 'go-arounds' or aborted landings, according to the airport.

Despite the flight chaos, the airport was open and operational on both Sunday and Monday, Graeme McQueen, a spokesperson for Dublin Airport, said in a statement to The New York Times. The storm's winds, named Isha, weakened Sunday night and changed to a more favorable westerly direction to allow for “a smooth first wave of flights.”

The storm's winds presented a challenge for flight crews, with gusts of between 75 and 75 miles per hour in southern England and Ireland. Steve Fox, head of network operations at NATS, which provides air traffic control services in Britain, said in a statement on Monday. In the north the wind gusts were more than 90 kilometers per hour

Mr Fox said planes that could not land safely were diverted to other airports.

“Yesterday, as the storm blanketed the entire country, we warned airlines that their normal diversion airport may not be available and they should plan to potentially divert further,” he said, adding that flights were being diverted to destinations that were “least safe”. affected” and still had space available “at the pilot's critical decision point.”

A lot of the to flee were operated by Ryanair, a budget airline, including one of Manchester to Dublin that was diverted to Paris and another from Stansted to Newquay, Englandthat was diverted to Málaga, Spain.

Ryanair said the storm caused some flights to and from airports in Britain and Ireland to be canceled or delayed on Sunday and Monday, and advised passengers with flights on Monday to check the Ryanair app for updates. It was not specified how many flights were cancelled, delayed or diverted.

A Ryanair flight from Budapest to London Stansted was due to depart on Sunday at 6pm. But the two-and-a-half-hour flight turned into a 24-hour journey for Terrell Crossley and her boyfriend, who were trying to get home after a weekend away to celebrate his birthday.

The pilot tried to land the plane twice but was unable to due to the wind speed, Ms Crossley told The Times. Instead, the pilot diverted the plane to Manchester, about 200 miles northwest of their original destination.

“It was extremely tense and everyone sat in absolute silence,” she wrote of their final descent. “When we landed in Manchester everyone applauded the pilot and you felt a sense of relief from the passengers. Everyone was grateful to be on the ground.”

But once the plane landed, Ms Crossley said, the passengers were held on the tarmac for two and a half hours, during which time there was a medical emergency requiring an ambulance. She said there was no communication with the pilot and no access to food or water. Finally, the pilot told the passengers they could disembark in Manchester. Not everyone did that, and some ended up back in Budapest. Ryanair did not immediately return a request for comment.

Ms Crossley and her boyfriend booked a hotel for the night in Manchester and took a train to Stansted on Monday, before finally arriving in London just before 6pm that evening.

Greg Manahan, a television director from Dublin, was almost home after a week's holiday in Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands, when passengers on his Ryanair flight On Sunday evening, they were told they could not land in Dublin, which was about 20 minutes away, and would instead head south to Bordeaux, France.

“Bordeaux is a long way from Dublin, we were almost halfway back to Lanzarote,” Mr Manahan said.

He said passengers had to wait on the plane for an hour after landing, and that once they got to the airport, only one food store was open and “whatever was left was taken out.”

Mr Manahan said passengers were led to a line to be set up with accommodations. But after landing in Bordeaux around 6:30 p.m., they were still at the airport at 11 p.m. At that point, many people, including Mr. Manahan, decided to find hotel rooms for themselves.

His new flight to Dublin departed an hour late on Monday morning and Mr Manahan said he arrived around 11am, almost 24 hours after the flight left Lanzarote.