“We’ve been swayed for 48 hours”: Belgians stranded in Spain after a technical problem on a TUI flight

The holidays end more difficult than expected for nearly 200 Belgian tourists who left for the Canary Islands. They reported it to us via the orange alert us button. Their plane had a technical problem. They were blocked for almost 48 hours in Tenerife.

A marathon-like weekend for around 180 passengers on a TUI flight Fly. They were supposed to arrive in Liège two days ago. “It makes 48h that we are tossed. We have not had any information from TUI. We were just relocated, fortunately“, testifies Louise, a passenger. Their misadventure began Friday followingnoon, when checking the plane on takeoff. The technicians have identified a faulty part that must be replaced. The diagnosis took several hours.

Pilots and stewards exceeded working hours

Pieter Demeyere, spokesperson for the tour operator TUI: “Ces information, sometimes we don’t have it ourselves. Sometimes it takes a lot of hours to notice where is the problem and to be able to more or less make an observation of the number of hours of delay that there will be.“

To replace the part in question, it was obviously necessary to intervene from Belgium. A transport that might not arrive until the next morning. The start is therefore postponed to Saturday with a final test scheduled, but the program is once more turned upside down. “These tests took longer than expected. On top of that, the pilots and stewards have exceeded the hours they can work in a day.“, concludes Peter Demeyere.

After the staff rested, the plane was finally able to take off this Sunday morning at 10H30. Passengers will receive a compensation of 400 euros on their account.