Passengers stunned at pilot's admission over reason for flight delay

Passengers on a flight from Lisbon to Manchester were left stunned when the pilot admitted he held their flight up because he ‘couldn’t give the crew sandwiches’.

The easyJet plane was fully boarded and ready to go on Sunday when the pilot took to the intercom to deliver the excuse to the passengers, a video clip shows.

The pilot is seen explaining over the intercom that he decided to delay the flight so that he could source some better food for his crew.

This involved going all the way back through security, he says, on account of airport staff not allowing him to be fast-tracked to return to the waiting plane.

‘I couldn’t feed the crew with poor sandwiches,’ the pilot tells the disgruntled passengers over the speakerphone.

Passengers on a flight from Lisbon to Manchester were left stunned when the pilot (pictured Sunday) admitted he held their flight up because he ‘couldn’t give the crew sandwiches’

Passengers on a flight from Lisbon to Manchester were left stunned when the pilot (pictured Sunday) admitted he held their flight up because he ‘couldn’t give the crew sandwiches’

‘I had to [go back to] the terminal, go through the security check again, passport check, and when I asked if I can skip the queue to buy something for the crew while passengers were waiting – the answer was no,’ he says.

‘So I had to queue with 100 persons. Thank you for your patience. Now we are going hopefully. Thank you for your patience,’ he added.

The pilot is then seen returning to the cabin as the passengers are heard chattering in disbelief over the explanation given to them.

In a message to MailOnline about the delay, the passenger who captured the clip of the pilot’s announcement said they ‘were delayed on an easyJet flight from Lisbon to Manchester because the plane had no hot food.’

Choosing to stay anonymous, they explained that the flight had already suffered a series of setbacks before their party had even boarded.

The passenger said the initial flight they were due to return to Manchester on was cancelled on the day of departure, resulting in chaos at Lisbon airport.

They were assigned another flight home, but the problems did not end there.

‘The flight departure was delayed until after 4pm due to not having any crew available to attend,’ they told MailOnline.

‘When the crew arrived and we boarded the plane the crew announced that there would be further delays to get the crew some food.’

A picture sent to MailOnline shows a pizza box placed on a shelf in the crew’s area of the plane after it was delayed so that the crew could get food for the flight from Lisbon to Manchester

At this point, the passenger said, ‘the pilot decided to go and get some for his crew and delay the flight’ further.

‘Apparently sandwiches weren’t good enough so we had a further hour delay on the plane whilst this pilot went to get hot food.

‘They couldn’t make it through a 2hr50 flight on sandwiches!’ they added.

They said passengers had to sit on the plane for over an hour waiting for the situation to be resolved, during which time they couldn’t get any food for themselves or use the on-board toilets – and were not offered refreshments.

‘Surely it would have been better to allow passengers to stay in the comfort of the airport lounge before boarding whilst the crew tended to their requirement for sustenance,’ they said.

‘Making passengers wait on the plane for this amount of time meant we couldn’t use any toilet facilities or get any food or drink for ourselves.

‘At no point were we offered any refreshments or food,’ they said. ‘During the flight some passengers received some complimentary refreshments and some did not including myself.

The easyJet plane was fully boarded and ready to go on Sunday in Lisbon when the pilot took to the intercom to deliver the excuse to the passengers, a video clip shows (file photo)

The flight landed in Manchester 2 hours and 50 minutes late, the passenger said, but 4 hours and 29 minutes later than the original booking arrival time.

‘I would not have taken the flight had I known that the arrival would have been over 3 hours late at the time of booking and would have looked for an alternative flight.’

A separate picture sent to MailOnline showed a pizza box placed on a shelf in the crew’s area of the plane.

MailOnline has contacted easyJet for comment.

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