Children Sleep On Airport Floor After Dozens Of Flight Canceled In Manchester

Although operations at the airport at Manchester, England, were back to normal Monday, the scenario was quite different Sunday, when chaos ensued after nearly 90 flights were canceled.

Around 2 p.m. local time (9 a.m. EDT) Sunday, over 13,000 passengers were affected when a power issue disrupted fuel supply at Britain’s third-busiest airport. Since aircraft that needed to refuel were unable to do so, their takeoffs were delayed, and that in turn impacted the inbound planes, which were unable to find spaces at the airport to land. As a result, a number of planes had to be diverted to other airports, including Liverpool, the Guardian reported.

Of the 87 flights canceled Sunday, 42 were arrivals and 45 were departures. Travelers, many of whom had to wait inside grounded airplanes or inside the airport building for over five hours, described the situation as “absolute carnage" and "total shambles.”

“Due to a power issue this afternoon there is currently an issue with the fuel supply at the airport and we have engineers on-site working to fix this. Please speak to your airline for specific flight information and updates,” the airport tweeted Sunday.

While a few passenger got hotel accommodations, a huge chunk spent hours sitting or sleeping inside the airport. Social media photos showed exhausted children sleeping on chairs, luggage and even on the floor late Sunday, as they waited to hear updates about their respective flights.

Most of the passengers stranded at the airport, with no means to reach their destinations, had no clue when the issues would be sorted out. Martin Keogh, a Jet2 passenger from Northenden, Manchester, who was due to fly to Palma, Spain, at 5 p.m. local time Sunday, along with his wife and twin sons, said: "At about 4.30 p.m. we were told there was a site wide power disruption which was affecting refueling. I've not seen any aircraft take off since. You can imagine everyone is sat [sic] around, it is bit of a nightmare."

Another passenger, Rachael Smith, 36, from Edinburgh, who was scheduled to take an EasyJet flight to Preveza, Greece, on business, said she was informed her flight had been canceled. “I’ve been sitting here close on three hours now, which funnily enough was the flight time,” she said, Mirror Online reported. “We’ve just been told the flight has been canceled. We’re waiting to be taken off but there’s a backlog. So it will be a hotel and hopefully a flight tomorrow. The crew have brought us water. It’s not their fault at the end of the day. It would have been nice to know [what the problem was] a little bit sooner.”

At 3 a.m. local time, Monday, the airport tweeted out the following statement: “Engineers have now resolved the power issue which affected the fuel supply. Most scheduled flights will operate as planned today; however, we expect that there will be a small number of delays and cancellations as a result of the issues experienced yesterday. Please check the status of your flight with your airline. We apologize for any inconvenience caused and thank you for your patience.”