Plane forced to divert leaving passengers stranded for 17 hours after pair commit illegal act

Passengers were left furious after having to sleep on coats in an airport following a forbidden act.

For the passengers of this flight, this was probably a travel experience from hell.

Travelling can be stressful at the best of times, as one small thing going wrong can mean you don’t have your luggage, miss your flight or have some other unlucky occurrence.

So when you do make your flight and are off in the air with a safe takeoff, all you can hope for is the flight goes without a hitch. This wasn’t the case for some unlucky passengers who were on a flight from Cancun, Mexico, heading to London, UK.

One passenger, 66-year-old Terry Lawrance, said after the incident that grounded the flight, travelers were forced to sleep on airbeds and cots when the chances of their flight taking off again were dashed.

The pilot warned that the flight would divert if the people continued to smoke

So what happened? On the July 8 flight the captain made an announcement that two passengers had been smoking in the toilets and if it continued, they would have to divert.

Smoking on commercial planes is illegal in most parts of the world and the rule includes traditional cigarettes as well as e-cigarettes.

Unfortunately for the law-abiding passengers, after another three hours, the captain announced to the plane that they would now be diverting to Bangor International Airport in Maine, US.

They touched down at 9.30 p.m. and the alleged smokers were booted off the flight.

At this stage, you would hope that things would get back to normal and they would take off soon after, but this wasn’t the case.

Terry said the other passengers sat in their seats for another five hours and even taxied to take-off, before the flight was abandoned, as the original crew were not able to continue to operate the rest of the flight back to Gatwick due to legal working hours.

The passengers were forced to get some rest and fly out hours later (SWNS)

Consequently, a relief flight was readied immediately, and a new crew was dispatched from the UK to the US to fly everyone back.

The passengers were then kept in a room, which Terry claimed was part of the military airbase section of the airport, for over 15 hours while the airline worked to sort a relief crew.

A flight to take passengers home to Gatwick eventually took off at 15:00 local time (20:00 BST) on Wednesday July 9 - with all passengers now safely home.

So, everyone eventually got to where they wanted to be but admittedly the stress of it all sounds like a nightmare.

• Dead body held in plane galley for 13 hours during flight as passengers describe 'foul smell'
• Flight attendant tells passengers they should never wear t-shirt on a plane for horrible reason
• Airline announces controversial new fine for people who take part in common plane habit
• United Airlines introduces strict new rule for passengers who use electronic devices during flight