Thomas Cook has to pay a fine of £530 to more than hundreds of passengers who had to extend their Cuban holiday by more than 24 hours.
Flight MT2652 took off from Manchester with 332 passengers on board and was suppose to reach Holguin in eastern Cuba. While flying over the Atlantic about 200 miles west of the Irish coast, there was an inflight mechanical incident involving the Airbus A330 and pilots decided to return to the Thomas Cook base in Manchester. The pilots reported an oil pressure issue with the left-hand engine.
No emergency was declared, and the plane made a normal landing.
Strangely, the plane was missing a wingtip on the left-hand wing, which caused some mistaken concern that part of the wing had fallen off. This was because the engineers removed the wingtip as it is not an essential component, but an aid to fuel efficiency – for repair.
Passengers were given overnight accommodation in the Manchester area, and have continued their journey today on a different aircraft.
The 295 holidaymakers in Cuba who were expecting to fly back on Monday were able to stay at their hotels, and returned just over 24 hours late.
Thomas Cook declared that the passengers at both ends of the route would qualify for £530 statutory EU compensation for the delay.
This is not the first time Airbus A330 jets have encountered problem. In the recent weeks, an AirAsia X plane returning to Perth after an engine issue, which left it “shaking like a washing machine” and a China Eastern aircraft returning to Sydney after a large hole, appeared in the engine housing.
