Passengers on a flight from Lisbon to Manchester were left stunned when the pilot admitted he delayed the flight because he “couldn’t give the crew sandwiches”.
The EasyJet plane was fully boarded and ready to depart on Sunday when the pilot took advantage of the intercom to excuse himself to the passengers, as a video shows.
The pilot is seen explaining over the intercom that he decided to delay the flight in order to get better food for his crew.
This involved going all the way through security, he says, because airport staff would not allow him to quickly return to the waiting plane.
“I couldn’t feed the crew two poor sandwiches,” the pilot tells the disgruntled passengers over the loudspeaker.
Passengers on a flight from Lisbon to Manchester were left stunned when the pilot (pictured on Sunday) admitted he delayed the flight because he “couldn’t give the crew sandwiches”.
“I had to (return to) the terminal, go through security again, passport control, and when I asked if I could skip the line to buy something for the crew while the passengers waited, the answer was no,” he said. she says.
‘So I had to queue with 100 people. Thank you for your patience. Now let’s get lucky. Thank you for your patience,’ he added.
The pilot is then seen returning to the cockpit while passengers are heard chattering in disbelief about the explanation they were given.
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 did not have hot food.”
Choosing to remain anonymous, they explained that the flight had already suffered a series of setbacks even before their group boarded.
The passenger said the initial flight they were due to return to Manchester was canceled on the day of departure, causing 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 no crew available to assist,” they told MailOnline.
“When the crew arrived and we boarded the plane, the crew announced that there would be further delays in getting them some food.”
An image sent to MailOnline shows a pizza box placed on a shelf in the crew area of the plane after it was delayed so the crew could get food for the flight from Lisbon to Manchester.
At that point, the passenger said, “the pilot decided to go get something for his crew and delay the flight even more.”
“Apparently the sandwiches weren’t good enough, so we had another hour delay on the plane while the pilot went to get hot food.
‘They couldn’t last a 2 hour and 50 minute flight with sandwiches!’ they added.
They said passengers had to sit on the plane for more than an hour waiting for the situation to be resolved, during which time they were unable to get food or use the onboard toilets, and were not offered refreshments.
“Surely it would have been better to allow passengers to remain in the comfort of the airport lounge before boarding while the crew attended to their sustenance needs,” they said.
‘Making passengers wait on the plane for so long meant we couldn’t use any toilets or get food or drink.
“At no time did they offer us soft drinks or food,” they said. ‘During the flight, some passengers received complimentary snacks and others, not including me.
The easyJet plane was fully boarded and ready to depart in Lisbon on Sunday when the pilot used the intercom to excuse the passengers, video 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 if I had known that arrival would have been delayed by more than 3 hours at the time of booking and I would have sought an alternative flight.”
A separate image sent to MailOnline showed a pizza box placed on a shelf in the crew area of the plane.
MailOnline has contacted easyJet for comment.