A PASSENGER on an Aer Lingus flight departing from Dublin has posted a shocking video of the flight attendant announcing the flight had been canceled just before take-off.
TikTok user @gracieb2509 posted the video with the caption: “@Aer Lingus what a joke.”
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In the video, Grace films her and her friends’ reaction to an Aer Lingus flight attendant making an announcement over the plane’s loudspeakers.
In the video, the flight attendant says: “Some of my crew have run out of hours.
“That is a legal maximum they are allowed to work per day and it is regulated by aviation authorities.
“We have no choice but unfortunately I had to cancel the flight
“There will be an airlift in front of the door shortly and we ask that you take everything with you.”
Grace and her friends were clearly shocked by the announcement, and she later added in the comments that “the seat belt sign was on and they had done the safety demonstration.”
The flight was from Dublin to London, which normally takes about an hour and 20 minutes.
Grace explained in the video’s comments that they were delayed and sat on the runway for two hours before the cabin crew announced some of them were past legal hours to be able to work.
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Some comments asked the unfortunate passenger if Aer Lingus did anything for the passengers on the canceled flight.
She said: “They still haven’t offered us a new flight, just said, ‘Contact us to make arrangements’.”
Commentators were shocked, but many felt sorry for the crew of the flight.
One person said: “Can we also see that this crew wasn’t paid for the entire time they were on the tarmac either? They only get paid while they’re in the air.”
Someone else said, “How come they allow passengers to board the plane before they realize they can’t board it?”
Someone else added: “This happened to my daughter so they brought in a crew from another plane that had enough hours left for the flight – crazy.”
Another person said: “It’s not the employees who are to blame – it’s management who believe they can abuse these employees and make them work for free.”
This comes at a busy time for air travel and an extremely difficult time for Aer Lingus.
At least 4,000 people were affected by Aer Lingus flight cancellations last weekend.
Aer Lingus passengers have been hit with cancellations after flights to Gatwick, Lyon and Amsterdam were grounded.
The airline says the cancellations are being caused by a Covid spike among its staff, as well as strikes in France.
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