I agree, but the Captain did say at the start he had contacted the agent to open up the gate and people would be free to leave, swissport never got back to him? As for the crew member who replied to a passenger ''I'm off duty'' when asked for food, there's a P45 which should be sent in his direction regardless of whether it was a bad day or not.
I will say though, there is clearly a lack of guidelines for crew in these rare situations, anyone with a brain would quickly realize the flight Isn't going to be released and to let pax return to the terminal.
With regards your friend on the LBA-DUB flight, there is a point to be made there; during that disruption, Ryanair made every effort to get passengers home, they cancelled a lot less flights then there rivals and that has to be commended, I'd rather be delayed then stranded if I'm honest - but the disconnect with basic customer service skills in these situation is totally alarming.
They've put laws against this in the US following the JetBlue incident, were brainy enough to realize what do to in most cases here in Europe in such incidents, at least I thought..
