U.S.-bound passengers stranded after emergency landing

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Dozens of individuals had been stranded in Europe for a second evening on Saturday after their U.S.-bound flight made an emergency touchdown in Dublin following an engine failure, passengers stated.

Brussels Airways flight 101 was en route from Brussels to New York on Friday when pilots issued a “pan-pan” message, which signifies an issue much less severe than a “mayday,” when flying at 37,000 ft, aviation media and monitoring web sites stated.

Pilots of the 12-year-old Airbus A330-300 requested to divert to Shannon in western Eire however switched to Dublin on directions from the airline, based on Aviation Herald, an impartial web site which tracks airplane incidents.

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Lufthansa unit Brussels Airways confirmed that the airplane had diverted after an engine warning and stated pilots had adopted normal process.

Passengers praised the crew however stated they’d been put up in inns in Dublin earlier than being flown to Paris on Saturday, the place many had been then unable to get on overcrowded flights to New York days earlier than Thanksgiving in the US.

They included 18-year-old Maja Schmidt from Germany who was heading to New York to work as an au pair.

“They didn’t have something vegetarian so I ate bread and a cookie,” she instructed Reuters. The airline stated it had a coverage of providing vegetarian meals and blamed the issue on a lodge.

Additionally on board was 22-year-old Oliver Sommerburg from close to Hamburg, Germany, taking solely the second flight of his life.

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“It was loopy, I don’t know what’s occurring. They don’t inform us something,” he stated.

Bernard Vidick, a Belgian judicial officer, stated he had been refused a connecting flight in Paris as a result of the airplane bringing stranded passengers from Dublin had additionally been delayed.

“This implies we’re blocked in Paris whereas we ought to be in New York. We’re losing two of the few trip days we have now,” he instructed Reuters.

“We now have accomplished our utmost to provide care to our passengers in troublesome circumstances … however sadly we couldn’t present an optimum answer to all. We very a lot remorse the inconvenience this prompted for our prospects,” the airline stated.

Carriers serving the US are bracing for congestion and delays subsequent week because the Thanksgiving vacation overlaps with airline labor shortages. (Reporting by Tim Hepher; Enhancing by Jane Merriman and Andrew Heavens)