Anybody seen this story today. Wonder who the unlucky pilot was?
SUN-SEEKERS were stranded at an airport for four hours — because a pilot lost his mobile phone in the cockpit.
The holidaymakers were settled in their seats ready for take-off while the captain gave a running commentary on his fruitless search.
He scrambled around the floor and finally called for “technical assistance”.
Engineers
DISMANTLED sections of the cockpit to search under the floor — without success.
And after being stuck on the Boeing 737-800 for an hour the 189 passengers were asked to collect their belongings and return to the terminal.
Wish we were there ... Tenerife
They were left helpless at Doncaster Robin Hood Airport instead of sunning themselves at Tenerife until a replacement aircraft could be laid on for the 4¾-hour flight.
They finally took off with a
DIFFERENT pilot at the controls.
Thomsonflylast night apologised and insisted they had no choice but to delay the plane.
Stranded ... passengers were left in Doncaster
A spokesman said: “The aircraft could not take off until the phone was recovered as it was still switched on.
“Phones have to be switched off during a flight for safety reasons.”
A passenger said: “We just couldn’t believe our ears. We thought we’d heard every excuse in the book for delays but this one took the biscuit.
“At least the pilot was honest right from the start.
“He told us over the tannoy that we couldn’t take off until he found his mobile phone. Fifteen minutes later he said he was
STILL looking for it.
“So we just waited and waited and he kept announcing they were still looking.
“Then he said the engineers had dismantled some of the panels in the cockpit but they still couldn’t find the phone anywhere.”