Passengers have accused Stanley Johnson of being responsible for the cancellation of a diverted British Airways flight.
The author, the father of Boris Johnson, was on board flight BA2641 from Malaga to London Gatwick.
When another British Airways flight refused to take off from Gatwick, the runway was closed for 50 minutes and 16 flights were diverted, including the flight to Malaga.
The plan was to refuel the Airbus A321 at Heathrow and, when the runway reopened, take the short flight to Gatwick. But some passengers were keen to get off – including, according to passengers, Mr Johnson.
One of them, Richard Davenport, told The Independent: “The plan was to refuel and the plane was given a slot to fly to Gatwick. However, Stanley Johnson decided he wanted to get off – along with another passenger – and we subsequently missed the slot.
“It took a few hours to sort everything out and BA eventually cancelled the flight. All passengers then had to disembark, go through immigration and then take a bus to Gatwick.
“Because we parked our car at Gatwick, we didn’t have the option of simply getting off at Heathrow. That left a bitter aftertaste for 99.5 percent of passengers.”
At some point, airport police were called to resolve the issue, passengers report.
Another passenger, Annemarie, told The Independent: “Apparently Stanley Johnson, along with a frightened passenger, refused to stay on the plane. They became quite angry, so the police were called.
“It caused carnage because the airline can’t force you to stay on the plane against your will. And because so many passengers wanted to get off, it would have been hell at Heathrow with passengers having to collect their luggage and those going to Gatwick might have wanted to collect their luggage and then check in again and that would have meant the crew would have no flying hours left.
“The airline has made the decision to cancel the flight.”
A British Airways spokesman said: “Due to an earlier disruption at Gatwick, the flight was diverted to Heathrow where it terminated.”
The crew remained on board the aircraft, which was needed at Gatwick to fly holidaymakers to Crete. According to data from Flightradar24, the plane finally took off on its 19-minute flight to Gatwick at 5.30pm on Friday afternoon.
The plane’s planned flight to Heraklion was cancelled.
Asked for comment, Mr Johnson said in response: “When the aircraft landed at Heathrow after being diverted from Gatwick, there was a passenger announcement telling passengers who wished to fly and did not have luggage in the hold to disembark at Heathrow.”
“Three of us took the opportunity, went to the front exit and waited on the stairs in front of the cabin for transport to the terminal.
“For some reason, the authorities were unable to organize this! I am very sorry for the inconvenience, but it would not have happened if the authorities had not made the mistake of announcing the ‘get off here’ option without being able to implement it. I would be very grateful if you could find a way to clarify this.”
