A flight from Edinburgh to Tenerife was diverted to Gran Canaria on Thursday after a broken-down executive jet at Reina Sofía airport led to 20 commercial flights, mainly from the UK being diverted.
The plane landed at Tenerife South at 5.45pm but suffered a technical fault on the runway which left it temporarily immobilised.
A subsequent Edinburgh-bound easyJet flight was diverted to Madrid overnight causing passengers a 24-hour delay.
This was due to out of hours issues affecting the crew.
A spokesperson for easyJet said: “Following the temporary runway closure of Tenerife airport, easyJet, like all airlines, experienced some disruption to its operations to and from Tenerife.
“We are making every effort to get customers to their destination and any customers whose flights are disrupted due to the impact of the runway closure are being notified and provided with options to rebook or receive a refund as well as hotel accommodation and meals where needed.”
One passenger on the incoming flight told the Edinburgh Reporter: “As we were approaching Tenerife, I noticed that the plane appeared to be in a holding path then the captain announced that we would be diverting to Gran Canaria.
“We were held there for a couple of hours which allowed the plane to refuel before we took off again back to Tenerife.
“The easyjet staff kept us informed of developments and everyone remained calm. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a phone signal to alert my friend who was due to pick us up. And I couldn’t even check the Hibs score.
“It was touch and go whether we would have to stay on Gran Canaria and even get the ferry in the morning but thankfully it worked out OK.
“We were 90-minutes late in taking off from Edinburgh but had we been on time we would have landed shortly before the private plane that caused the problem.
“When we did arrive, due to the number of other flights also coming in we were held at passport control for over an hour then had to wait in a massive taxi queue for over an hour but thankfully the staff at the rank were excellent and there was plenty available.
“We finally got to our apartment five hours later than we should have but at least we were all safe.”
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
