Family forced to give up on trip after two-day nightmare
A FAMILY who spent almost two days sat on a plane trying to get to France for a winter break have had to settle for playing video games instead.
Lesley Hicks, a dentist from Cwmdulais Dental Centre in Crynant, was hoping to travel with her family to Chambrey for a skiing holiday on Saturday.
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Dr Lesley Hicks and her partner, Keith, of Crynant, failed to get to their ski holiday destination. GM140110D-001
It was the only time Dr Hicks, her two sons, Paul and Mark, her partner, Keith Hotson, and his son, Andrew, could get together.
However, after a disastrous attempt to get to France, they abandoned the holiday and decided to return home.
The family were supposed to be flying to the French airport of Chambrey with Thomson, but the plane was diverted to Lyon, where passengers were kept waiting on the aircraft for seven-and-a-half hours.
Dr Hicks said: "It was awful. We were not provided with any food or drink. We were told we could buy food on the plane until it ran out, which it eventually did.
"The authorities in France would not let us off the plane and would not allow any food to be brought onto the plane, or the toilet to be emptied.
"However, they did allow us to refuel and de-ice the plane."
Then, the plane was flown back to Cardiff. Passengers were off-loaded and given accommodation. After only four hours sleep Dr Hicks and her family returned to the airport to be told they would be flying to either Grenoble or Geneva.
However, after 90 minutes sitting on the tarmac, the destination changed to Milan.
"So we decided enough was enough, and we came home," Dr Hicks added.
"Twenty-three of us made the decision. We're all so disappointed. We've had to settle for playing alpine sports on Wii instead."
A spokeswoman for Thomson and Crystal Ski said the tour operator was treating the problems extremely seriously. She said: "This was a very serious emergency. The fact that the passengers were unable to leave the plane was out of our hands. Our managing director is now in France holding meetings to make sure nothing like this happens again.
"We also believe the Foreign Office has been involved.
"This is one of the biggest emergencies the company has seen."
However, Dr Hicks fears the decision to get off the plane will affect any compensation claim against the company.
"We've been pestering Thomson about what will happen," she added. "We've been told we are not entitled to compensation, only those who went on the holiday will be.
"Now we have to deal with our insurance companies, but it's unlikely we'll get our money back, because they do not cover travellers in bad weather."
The spokeswoman for the travel operator added: "We will speak to all parties individually to assess what to do next."
helen.keates@swwmedia.co.uk
26 Comments
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by vicki hotson, swindon
Tuesday, January 26 2010, 12:38PM
“my brother hardly ever sees his dad, a couple times a year, and he rarely goes on hoilday. our dad lives in wales and we live in england. the preperation everybody made foe this hoilday took ages and it had been planned from over a year ago. im sure you would all be pi**ed off if it was your hoilday!”
by Steve Jones, Uplands
Saturday, January 16 2010, 7:19PM
“I've been stuck at airports in the past but never called the EP. This is completely ridiculous. If you try to fly during severe weather then you can expect delays. That's common sense. This family should be locked up so that we don't have to hear any more of their stupid stories.”
by Stuart, Port Talbot
Saturday, January 16 2010, 1:32PM
“Hey - all you whingers and whiners and ranters.
This is not "news" in the classical sense, but it is a human interest story... the likes of which fill ALL popular newspapers.
The Evening Post is a great mix of these.
It could of course simply print details of council meetings, police reports, and whatever the public have to offer. I think you'd find it a pretty dry paper then.
I don't buy the post anymore because I can just read this site.
At one point the Post did start printing excerpts - with a "buy today's newspaper for more details" tagline on each report. Thankfully, that soon died out.
As Rupert Murdoch is currently debating removing the free content from his newspapers websies, so perhaps should the post. But it's a tricky situation... printing your news online means you gather traffic.
Who knows what they'll decide to do. A Newspaper lives by it's circulation and readership. These comments inspire debate, and apart from the usual complainers it's usually the comments I like reading more than reports!
Keep going on, EP, and if you do decide to block online reports please put them behind a cheap paywall instead. I'll pay :-)”
by J, Swansea
Saturday, January 16 2010, 9:22AM
“I do have to agree in the grand scheme of things, this is a very minor incident. But I do have to wonder how many of these people saying its just a holiday and get over it, would actually have the same attitude if it were their holiday?? I would assume from their comments they would be happy to let it go?”
by L H Lewis, Neath
Saturday, January 16 2010, 7:54AM
“I cannot believe this family and party have gone to the paper about a spoiled holiday! Hard cheese, get on with it, deal with it. I agree with the majority of people on here at least they are alive, fed, warm and home, which is something 1000's of people are not in Haiti. Book another holiday if that is the only thing that is worrying you!”