Thread by @Deis_face

A shout out to passengers on @Fly_Norwegian flight D82766 from Helsinki to London, diverted to Copenhagen on 18.02.22 because of #stormEunice. If you consider a complaint against the airline, get in touch. For everyone else, here is the story. (1)

9 am on 18.02 @Fly_Norwegian captain on flight D82766 announces there is going to be a bumpy ride en route to London bc of the storm. On approach to #Gatwick the plane makes 2 landing attempts in extreme turbulence, circles around South Downs & is then diverted to Copenhagen (2)

Having spent 5 hrs in the air, passengers, many of whom kids, then are left in the aircraft for another two hours while @Fly_Norwegian tries to sort out what to do with them all. No food, drinks, help are offered. (3)

Msgs are confusing: first they say 41 ppl could be housed in Copenhagen and will fly out to London next day; around 30 would be taken to Stockholm and proceed from there; the rest would have to return to Helsinki to stay there until Sunday. (4)

A short while later a woman representing @Fly_Norwegian says they can only accommodate 25 ppl in Copenhagen, the rest will have to return to Helsinki. They ask who wants to stay in Copenhagen, most raise their hands. The crew then say now ALL passengers to return to Helsinki (5)

A row started to brew, as having stayed on board for some 7 hrs without food and fresh air, passengers were desperate to get out. Some started to have panic attacks, including myself. Police was called to the gate (6)

The captain then voices a new plan: anyone who wants to get out, is welcome to do so at their own expense and whoever chooses to do so, would not receive any help or compensation. At this point I fell apart. (7)

Anxiety is ugly, especially in the face of uncertainty, but no accommodation was made for those who were unable to endure another flight back or pay for alternative flight and extended stay abroad. The staff, including the captain, said they've not heard of the duty of care (8)

Kudos to the flight's crew (apart from the captain), who did their best to mitigate the circumstances. The Spanish flight attendants, one by the name of Miguel, you are my heroes! He saw that I was struggling and talked @Fly_Norwegian rep to get me some help on the ground (9)

Those few passengers who happened to get out at the same time as me, were accommodated too - 10 out of 170 people. About 15-20 others had to make their own arrangements, having essentially been lied to that there were no alternatives available. (10)

The rest returned back to Helsinki to spend 2 days at the local hotel, but not before they had to wait for another 1,5 hrs while the luggage was unloaded and then loaded back onto the plane. That comes to about 10 hrs + on the aircraft, without food, drink or air. (11)

The plane was full of children of all ages, many of whom were sick during turbulence, while @Fly_Norwegian's main concern was the amount of compensation they'd have to fork out. Unbelievable. I'm still shaken. Get in touch if you are affected by this or have advice (12)

Thanks for all messages and likes. To clarify, the airline did put me in a hotel in Copenhagen overnight, alongside the few lucky ones who wouldn’t take no for an answer. We flew to London next morning, as opposed to those who were shipped back to Helsinki and just DUMPED