Travel chaos struck Birmingham Airport today after the pilot and crew for a flight to Doha got stuck in a lift for more than three hours.
The 7.45am Qatar Airways flight to the Quatari capital was unable to take off while firefighters attempted to free the team who had been stuck in the lift from around 6am.
They were eventually freed just before 9.30am but the delay had a significant impact on passengers – some of whom had missed their connecting flights as a result.
One person said there was a “massive queue” for meal tickets that the airline offered as compensation for the delay this morning.
The airport has since confirmed the crew were stuck in a lift and have apologised to passengers for the delay.
A passenger claimed the group were asked to move out of the boarding area and await further instructions.
They said: “The flight was due out at 7.45am to Doha, what they’ve told us is the pilot has been stuck in an airport lift since 6am. Half the staff and the pilot and the staff are stuck in the lift. It’s shambolic, so basically you’ve got people going all over the world, Australia, New Zealand.”
The airport’s departure board showed a ‘final call’ sign for the flight at around 10am but by 10.30am the sign changed to ‘gate open’.
Flight tracking information shows the flight took off at 11.40am, nearly four hours after its scheduled departure, and that it landed in Doha at 8.28pm, local time, 5.28pm UK time.
“Everybody has connecting flights in Doha, no-one knows when the next flight is” the passenger explained. “It’s the ground staff telling us the pilot is stuck.”
The passenger added: “I’m off to Malaysia, there’s people here going to Australia, Bali, we’re just waiting now for a meal ticket which will be about £8 but it costs about £4.50 for a Costa coffee.
“If the pilot has been stuck in there for so long, he may not even be in a fit state to fly, apparently he’s still in there. It’s some story isn’t it, you couldn’t make it up!”
A Birmingham Airport spokesperson said earlier today: “At 6am today, airline crew members reported becoming stuck in one of our temporary lifts. With our lift contractor unable to reactivate the lift system, West Midlands fire service removed a panel to allow the crew out just before 9..30am. We are very sorry to airline crew members and customers affected by this. The 7.45am Doha service is set to depart in the next hour.”
