Lets get this heap of rubbish in the air

Holidaymakers waiting to take-off on a delayed flight to Edinburgh today claimed the pilot told them the plane was a "heap of rubbish".

The passengers had been sitting in the Boeing 737 on the runway at Lanzarote Airport yesterday when they claim the pilot made the announcement.
They also say he urged them to complain to Edinburgh-based FlyGlobespan about the "limited performance" aircraft.

The pilot allegedly admitted the six-year-old plane was only designed to carry 55 tonnes, but had 61 on board.

The passengers say they were due to take off from the north runway at Lanzarote, which would have taken them over mountains, but the pilot decided against this over concerns about whether the plane had the power to get that high because of the weight.

Today, FlyGlobespan denied the pilot made any such comments, despite three different passengers claiming he did. The firm admitted the flight was delayed yesterday, but said it was due to strong winds, and it finally took off this morning.

But the people on board the flight, which included a number of young children, said they were furious with the way they had been treated by the budget airline. Doug Steele, 43, from Portobello, who had been competing in a triathlon event, said: "We were due to fly at 2.55pm but were sitting in the airport lounge until 6pm.

"We were told the delay was because of low cloud cover and electric storms, and they were waiting for a break in the clouds and for the winds to drop - this didn't seem plausible as other flights were taking off. When we got on the plane the pilot said the plane had been burning off too much fuel. He said we will refuel and then come back and get this 'heap of rubbish' in the air." Lisa Turley, 26, from Clermiston, had been on holiday with her husband Marc, 29, and their baby son Dillon.

Her cousin was also on board the flight with her husband and two-year-old twins, and both women had their parents with them. Mrs Turley said: "We were really quite nervous about going up yesterday. The pilot said due to the weight we would not have enough power to get up, because the aircraft was of limited performance. The pilot said the situation was out of his control. He said he was furious and we should direct our complaints to FlyGlobespan."

The passengers did, however, say they were pleased with the five star hotel FlyGlobespan put them up in overnight.

Today the airline said it was sorry for the delays but denied the pilot had called the plane a "heap of rubbish".

A spokesman said: "We spoke to both the pilot and first officer prior to take-off today and they did not say anything like that. Where some confusion may have arisen is that the pilot, in trying to explain the take-off delay to passengers yesterday, used the phrase 'performance limiting' -referring to the runway length and direction of take-off which on the day was contrary to the prevailing wind FlyGlobespan always believe in giving passengers as much information as possible regarding delays but in this instance that seems to have been misinterpreted."

The spokesman apologised to passengers for the inconvenience caused but said that all the actions regarding the flight were taken "in accordance with the company's strict safety code". "We had a very experienced pilot and a modern plane on the route," he said.