A COUPLE have shared how their romantic getaway turned into a nightmare after their Wizz Air flight was diverted to another airport 400 miles away.
Ben Hall, 42, who was looking forward to a short vacation in Dubrovnik, Croatia, with his wife, said their trip was ruined after the airline diverted their flight to Zagreb and “abandoned” them.
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Ben, from Sheffield, said the couple, along with other stranded passengers, were left to their own devices and forced to spend the night at the airport.
After a three-hour delay from Luton, Bedfordshire, the flight was diverted to the country’s capital, an eight-hour drive from Dubrovnik.
Despite the promise that they would be taken to their destination by bus, about 100 passengers from the flight were left behind.
Ben told MailOnline“First we were told that the flight was delayed by three hours because the plane had no captain or cabin crew and so had to get staff on their day off to travel to Luton to work on the plane.
“When we finally took off, it was about 20 minutes before our scheduled landing, the pilot came over the loudspeaker and said we couldn’t land due to the high winds and were heading for Split to land there instead.
“Five minutes later he got back to the speaker and said that Split airport was closed, that’s why we couldn’t use the runway. No one knew what the hell was going on.
“Then we started descending, and the pilot came back on the loudspeaker and said that we were descending to Zagreb airport and that the staff would arrange buses to take us to Dubrovnik.”
The passengers were soon released that they were going on a long journey after learning that the journey could take eight hours.
Ben said that after waiting for hours, he received an apology email from Wizz Air stating that they “couldn’t arrange a bus for them”.
He said the airport was closed while hotels in Zagreb were full and no car rental companies were open at the time.
He continued: “Taxis quoted 1,000 euros to take people and said it was an 800-mile round trip for them.
“There were people falling asleep in their wheelchairs, newborn babies crying and parents saying they had run out of sterilized bottles. People were sleeping on the floor everywhere.”
Wizz Air has been contacted for comment.