In a bizarre twist of fate, a bunch of airplane passengers found themselves in the wrong country upon waking up. How on earth did that happen?
As reported by CNN on Wednesday (January 24, 2024), this airborne mishap was a fallout from the storm named Isha. Besides the unexpected detours, dozens of flights in Western Europe got either canceled or sent on a different route.
Normally, hopping on a flight is the quickest way to go from A to B, especially for long journeys. But for those jet-setting to and from Ireland and the UK, it turned into quite the adventure.
The storm had airports in Ireland and the UK in a tailspin, with gusts reaching up to a whopping 90 mph, playing havoc with runway operations.
Loads of flights bound westward got redirected to safer landing spots in continental Europe. And get this—they often hit their planned destinations before doing a 180 on landing.
Kevin, the go-to person for the Dublin Airport operator group, spilled the beans that Ryanair felt the heat. Their Dublin hub bore the brunt, clocking in the cancellation of a whopping 166 flights in and out on Sunday.
The airport also logged 36 flight detours and 34 go-arounds, where planes nixed their landings, deciding to “go around” and try their luck again.
These numbers paint a picture of the wild scenes as planes tried to wrap up their journeys to and from Ireland.
A Ryanair flight from Lanzarote in the Canary Islands to Dublin nailed the Irish capital before pulling a stunt—doing a 180 and making a beeline for Bordeaux, France, without even thinking about touching down.
Flight times quadrupled
Another Ryanair flight, FR555, supposed to be a quick hop from Manchester to Dublin, had other plans. After looping around in a holding pattern, it gave landing in Dublin the cold shoulder, opting for a detour to Paris Beauvais.
A flight that normally takes a mere half-hour ended up stretching into two and a half hours.
Another Manchester-Dublin flight circled between the UK and Ireland for over three hours, seeming like it was just having a joyride and never bothering to give Dublin a shot.
It flirted with landing in Belfast (where it did a few laps) and took a spin above Glasgow before settling for Liverpool, a cool 31 miles away from its launchpad.
The third plane, FR816, charting a one-hour course from Shannon to Edinburgh, made a detour to Scotland and then found its way to Cologne, Germany.
This flight also got hit with some serious delays. It was meant to jet off from Dublin at 3:35 PM but only made it to Cologne around midnight.
A Lufthansa flight from Munich to Dublin had to do a 180 and head back to Munich.
Cork in Ireland had its hands full with 13 cancellations on Sunday, throwing in six detours and seven go-arounds for good measure.
The UK wasn’t spared either, with over 100 flights getting the boot at airports across the country, according to NATS, the UK’s air traffic maestro.