EasyJet has denied claims that passengers on a delayed flight from Malaga to Bristol were asked to vote on whether to take off with only one working engine.
This follows a report by The Daily Mail that an EasyJet captain asked passengers to vote on whether “they would like to remain on the plane or get off” and told them “there was a high chance that only one engine would be working”.
The delayed flight, EZY6058 from Malaga was set to take off shortly before midnight on Thursday 8th June but was delayed. Passengers had to spend two nights in Malaga hotels, waiting to re-board the plane.
As is standard procedure, pilots needed to use one engine to start the other. EasyJet defended its pilot saying he “asked the passengers if they would like to get off or remain on board whilst the engine start up sequence continued”.
However, passengers took that to mean that the aircraft would take off with only one engine working. In as much as twin-jets can take off and fly with only one engine working, no pilot would dare to do so.
An EasyJet spokesperson said: “At no point did the pilot ask passengers to take a vote on flying the aircraft. Nor would we ever attempt to fly the aircraft without both engines working correctly.”
The airline flew in another aircraft to fly to Bristol, landing on 10 June, at 6pm, 40 hours behind schedule.
EasyJet passengers onboard another aircraft suffered hours of delay during the weekend after passengers reported a “suspicious conversation” between three men. The flight from Ljubljana to Stansted made an emergency landing at Cologne where the three men were arrested and later released without charge. The flight arrived at its destination 19 hours late.
