AIR TRAVEL HAS been disrupted for thousands of passengers yesterday and today due to diverted landings and cancellations as Storm Isha battered Ireland.
Dozens of flights were delayed, diverted or cancelled last night due to the weather conditions amid Storm Isha.
The sudden changes to flight schedules meant many planes were not in their planned locations this morning, leading to more cancellations today.
As of 9.30pm last night, a total of 148 flights coming in and out of Dublin Airport had been cancelled yesterday – 73 departures and 75 arrivals.
35 flights were diverted to other airports and 27 performed go-arounds before landing.
13 departures from Dublin Airport were cancelled today, as well as 16 flights due to arrive.
One flight that was due to travel from Manchester to Dublin yesterday afternoon circled over the Irish Sea multiple times before aborting its attempt to land in Dublin. Instead, it turned around and flew east, ultimately landing in Paris hours after it was originally due to be on the ground.
A Status Red weather warning was in place in Mayo, Galway and Donegal last night, with the rest of the country subject to a Status Orange warning.
Extreme weather events like storms are becoming more intense and more frequent as global average temperatures rise. An atmosphere that is warmer on average can hold more moisture, making storms more brutal when they occur.
Climate change is driven by human activities – including aviation – that burn fossil fuels and release greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.
A passenger on a flight that was diverted from its planned Amsterdam-Dublin route described their experience to The Journal.
The flight was due to take of at 2.55pm Dutch time and was initially delayed until 3.30pm, with passengers ultimately boarding around 4pm.
“We made it as far as Dublin and attempted to land but had to abort. We circled for about 10-15 minutes before the pilot told us we had divert,” the passenger said,
adding that no food was offered to passengers while they were on the ground.
“Some passengers that went down the back of the plane did get a bottle of water before a supervisor gave out, saying that those bottles of water would have to come out of their wages,” the passenger said.
They said passengers were first told the flight would be diverted to Shannon but then that the winds were too strong and the flight would land instead in Stansted Airport in London.
“We got to Stansted at approximately 6.05pm and assumed we would be able to get off the plane but we were instead kept on it for four hours sitting on the tarmac,” the passenger said.
“After four hours there, we eventually flew back to Dublin and managed to land, just about,” the said.
“We were delighted to be back but unfortunately the saga didn’t end there as apparently airport control assumed the plane was empty of passengers and directed the pilot to park the plane ages away from terminal and we then had a further two-hour wait on the tarmac in Dublin Airport before we could get a push back to get back to the terminal.
“So altogether, we were ten hours on that plane before we eventually got off at around 1.20am Irish time.”
Meanwhile, a flight in Birmingham bound for Dublin was due to depart at 12.40pm. Passengers were boarded around 1pm but the flight didn’t take off until around 3.30pm.
A passenger on the flight told the The Journal that the plane tried to descend in Dublin amid “choppy” weather before ultimately turning back to Birmingham.
The plane landed back in Birmingham around 5.45pm but it took another four hours for all of the passengers to be taken off the plane. Around 8pm, the airline asked if anyone wanted to volunteer to leave, at which point around half disembarked, according to the passenger.
The remaining passengers who waited on the plane were later provided with hotel rooms.
The passenger said that some people may have gotten food but the trolley didn’t reach most of the plane, with passengers told there was an issue with serving food while on the ground.
A new flight, which experienced a short delay, took the passengers back to Dublin this morning.
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