Passengers in UK after weekend of hell
Incensed Virgin Atlantic passengers launched a volley of abuse against Sir Richard Branson’s airline last night after suffering a 26-hour delay because of an allegedly drunken pilot.
Tired and exhausted travellers called Captain Richard Harwell “stupid” and the airline “pathetic” as Flight VS 022 from Washington DC to London was cancelled.
A total of 383 passengers – mostly British – were stranded in the city after Mr Harwell was arrested on Friday, charged with trying to fly a plane whilst inebriated.
Travellers had to queue for hours for hotels and endure long waits at check-in counters for their replacement flights.
And to cap it all off, a Boeing 747 finally landed at Heathrow yesterday, three hours late, taking the total delay to 26 hours.
Fifty-five year old Capt Harwell, a US citizen resident in Britain, who has had an unblemished 14-year record as a pilot with Virgin, faces up to five years in prison if found guilty.
Passenger Alan Burke, 36, said he was glad security had caught the pilot in time but added: “The overwhelming incompetence at the airport was devastatingly pathetic.”
Maureen Lynch, 27, from Chobham, Surrey, concurred: “I am very angry with the pilot.
“But the worst thing about it was that there was no organisation. No-one really seemed to know what was going on.”
Chief executive Steve Ridgway apologised on Sunday for the “terrible weekend.”
Mr Ridgway met angry travellers in person as they arrived at Heathrow’s Terminal 3 from Washington DC.
He said: ‘The most important thing for us has been getting the passengers back, and that meant a terrible 24-hour delay for them the very weekend they were coming on their Christmas holidays.
‘So it’s been a pretty terrible weekend all-in-all.’
Mr Harwell will be formally accused at a bail hearing Monday.
Virgin operates a zero-tolerance policy on drink and drugs.
