Virgin Atlantic was today ordered to pay €60,000 compensation to a group of 101 passengers, after their flight was delayed by more than 26 hours.
Flight VS16, travelling from Orlando, Florida to London Gatwick in 2012, suffered a major delay when the aircraft’s fire detector circuit developed a fault.
The passengers later set up a Facebook page to document their ordeal, explaining how they were delayed 3hours boarding their flight, and later made disembark the craft nearly an hour later as the captain informed them the problem still hadn’t been fixed.
The Facebook page also outlined how the holidaymakers were given a hotel room near the airport, but were left queueing to check in, with most of the guests waiting until 2am to get their room keys. They were also told that the hotel didn’t have adequate food or staff to fulfilll the food vouchers handed out by the airline.
The following day, the group were collected for check in at 1.30pm, but again didn’t board the flight until 8.15pm, before departing at 9.35pm and landing in Gatwick airport at 9.50am the following morning – 26 hours later than the original scheduled time.
Passengers contacted aw firm Bott & Co in November 2013, who issued group proceedings against Virgin Atlantic for compensation costs.
Virgin Atlantic was forced to pay €600 compensation to each passenger on the delayed VS16 flight following new orders for flights delayed more than three hours under EU Regulation 261.
