A JET2 customer has vowed to never fly again after being caught up in a hoax bomb threat scare while flying back home to the UK.
Lesley Smith Badby was on a flight from Dalaman, Turkey to Manchester last week when the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing in London.
The 54-year-old had just enjoyed a week away with her daughter Kelly and grandson Jenson when she looked out the window and spotted military jets flying underneath the plane.
The frightened grandmother claims that shortly after spotting the Typhoons the pilot made an announcement reassuring passengers that they would be landing soon in Manchester as planned.
However, ten minutes later, the plane touched down at Stansted Airport where it was revealed RAF fighter jets were called to accompany the plane back down safely due to a bomb threat.
Police later arrested a man who is alleged to have made a hoax phone call from Turkey stating there was a bomb onboard the plane.
Lesley, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, has been left so traumatised by the incident that she fears she will never be able to step foot on a plane again.
Speaking today, she said: “I won’t ever fly again.
“I saw one typhoon fly under the plane but if I’m honest I didn’t know what it was at the time.
“I told my daughter quietly so I didn’t disturb my seven-year-old grandson that something was wrong and that we were not over Manchester.
“We landed and then looked outside the window to look at armed police who had surrounded the plane.
“The pilot told us from his locked cabin that the flight had been diverted to Stansted by two typhoons and so everyone was just trying to gather some information.
“I found out it was a bomb threat and so I said my prayers and at that stage was told not to move out of our seat despite already having been sat for four hours.
“The children were getting upset as they were tired and nobody could use the toilets as they had been closed off.
“We eventually were allowed off of the plane one by one and told to go to the Jet2 desk but it was shocking.
“All of the children were crying, tired and hungry with agitated parents and one child had missed vital medicine – we actually waited until three in the morning to be picked up.”
Lesley added: “My son-in-law drove all the way from Oldham to get us because Jet2 just gave everyone pieces of paper which were intended to be an IOU for taxi drivers.
“We have been in touch with Jet2 but they said that they haven’t received our email, the whole experience was shocking from start to finish and to make it worse I don’t like flying.
“I’m ok now as long as I don’t think about what happened too much.”
Lesley claims that taxi drivers were not willing to accept credit notes from Jet2 so the family had to cover the costs out of their own pocket.
At the time, a spokesperson for Jet2 said: “The aircraft landed safely and taxied to a remote stand, where customers disembarked.
“We would like to apologise to everyone onboard for any inconvenience or upset caused by this unforeseen incident.
“We understand that the authorities were alerted to a potential security threat, however this was soon downgraded and the incident was declared over.”
A Jet2 spokesperson today said: “We can confirm that flight LS922 from Dalaman to Manchester diverted to London Stansted on Wednesday last week under the direction of the UK authorities.
“The aircraft landed safely and taxied to a remote stand, where customers disembarked.
“Our teams worked very hard to look after customers, and all customers were offered overnight accommodation or ground transportation from London Stansted Airport to Manchester that night.
“For customers who received overnight accommodation, transport to Manchester was arranged for them the following morning.
“We would like to apologise to everyone onboard for any inconvenience or upset caused by this unforeseen incident.
“We understand that the authorities were alerted to a potential security threat, however this was soon downgraded, and the incident was declared over.”
