A flight from London to the Isle of Man was diverted mid-air on Sunday due to the closure of Isle of Man Airport.

Richard Slee’s flight from London City to the Isle of Man was turned around in the air and forced to land in Liverpool instead due to the closure.

Four flights were cancelled, including the 6pm to Liverpool and the 9.05pm to London Gatwick on Sunday, and the 7am to London City and 7.30am to Liverpool on Monday.

The Examiner spoke to Mr Slee as he waited at the Liverpool ferry terminal.

He said: ‘I’m sure there’s various versions of the story going around but the version we were given on the aircraft was the airport would not remain open to facilitate the arrival of the aircraft.

‘Given my experience in the past, they will say it’s unavoidable but we were 25 minutes away from landing, we were in the air. Why was that the case? If they’d said that when we were in London we’d have known where we stood instead of going through all this.

‘It’s putting a dampener on some people’s first experience of the island.’

He was due to fly with Loganair at 11.45am on Sunday to the Isle of Man from Heathrow, which was cancelled and he was transferred to London City by coach. He boarded the plane to the island but this was diverted to Liverpool mid-flight.

Mr Slee said: ‘We kept getting messages about further delays when we were at City and then the plane departed about 9pm, no word of any issues at the time.

‘We were flying over Birmingham and received word that they had been advised by the airport that there was an air traffic control issue in the Isle of Man and that they had been trying to negotiate keeping the airport open but that was not successful.

‘In the absence of that we diverted to Liverpool.’

He continued: ‘We were told the bags would be at the baggage carousel but because we’d already left we couldn’t go back into the baggage area. One of the security people threatened to report us to the police because we tried to get back in to recover our bags.’ The passengers were put into a hotel at Albert Dock but many decided to book onto the next ferry.

‘We got to the hotel at 1.55am and were told we would be advised about flight departure times from Liverpool via email,’ said Mr Slee. ‘As of yesterday (Monday) morning, no email was forthcoming.

booked

‘We cut our losses and booked on the Seacat instead but there are still a lot of people missing their bags.’

Isle of Man Airport said: ‘The published closing time for Isle of Man Airport is 8.45pm, however a seasonal extension to 9.30pm has been agreed to accommodate an evening service to Gatwick.

‘Operators can experience delays during the day, and requests are often received for a further extension beyond 9.30pm. When this is possible, a further extension is granted to a limit of 11pm, to ensure staff and resources are available for re-opening the following morning. ‘Isle of Man Airport will always work hard to accommodate passengers arriving on a late flight, but staffing constraints meant that yesterday it wasn’t possible to accommodate the 11pm extension. This position was communicated to all airlines on Saturday.

‘The flexibility and willingness of staff to assist passengers should not be called into question. During May and June, Isle of Man Airport extended its opening hours beyond the agreed 9.30pm seasonal extension on 48 out of 61 days.’