BBC star Holly Hamilton was among thousands of travellers affected by Storm Ashley on Sunday night as the presenter found herself stranded for over two hours on a plane at Belfast City Airport.
On Sunday morning, the Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for wind, which covered the whole of Northern Ireland, as well as most of the rest of the UK.
Storm Ashley led to sporting matches being cancelled, delayed flights and widespread traffic disruption.
Holly was flying from Heathrow to Belfast, and while the plane landed at 5.05pm, they couldn’t leave it until 7.25pm as conditions were too blustery to attach steps to the aircraft.
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However, the Co Down broadcaster, who presents Consumer Fight Back on BBC Radio Ulster, was just relieved to be securely stationed on solid ground.
“Nobody was complaining. Everybody kind of got it, because while we were sitting on the plane, it was rocking the whole time,” she explained.
“I fly very regularly, and I’m not the kind of person to clap the pilot when we land, but we all gave him a huge round of applause this time for getting us down, because it took a few attempts.
“We all resigned ourselves to the thought that we were going to get diverted or we wouldn’t take off in the first place, so we were so surprised and relieved that the plane actually landed.”
BBC presenter Holly Hamilton
Winds of up to 70mph were expected until midnight, and all those onboard were wondering if they would be stranded there for a long period of time.
Holly added: “The pilot didn’t have a clue and you could sense that he was pretty frustrated too. The whole crew was from Heathrow and they just wanted to get back home. All we were told was that we are stuck here until the wind dies down.
“I’m not claustrophobic, but even I was feeling it, and I was sitting in a middle seat, so I felt literally trapped.
“Everybody was handling it really well, and there was a tiny little baby onboard who was dealing with it very well. The pilot even invited people with kids to the cockpit to see how it all worked, so that was very sweet.”
There’s also only one airbridge at Belfast City Airport, but many planes were in a makeshift queue to use it.
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Holly said that the pilot had to come on the speaker again because a few people had asked, “could we not just move the plane?”
“He explained it doesn’t work like that; the tarmac was full of planes at the same time. He explained that another British Airways plane was attached to the airbridge at that same time, and they had managed to get all their passengers off, but they couldn’t get their luggage off, because obviously that’s done with external steps.
“So, they had to decide to get all the passengers off, and head back to London with all their bags still onboard. We were thinking, ‘is this our fate?’”
Belfast City Airport said that they “appreciate the inconvenience caused by adverse weather conditions”, but that “the safety of our passengers and staff is of the utmost importance”.
Thankfully, passengers did get off – with their belongings in tow – and Holly was grateful that the flight wasn’t diverted to Manchester for the night, which happened to a separate easyJet plane intended to come from Bristol to Belfast.
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Meanwhile, SDLP politician Cara Hunter had considerably further to travel, as her Ryanair flight – which was due to arrive in Dublin on Sunday night – was instead sent to Shannon Airport in Co Clare.
Taking to X, the East Derry MLA wrote: “Cheers @Ryanair. Left every passenger stranded in Shannon Airport & just informed all its passengers to find their own way to Dublin. No coaches coming. Dead on.”
She previously said that “after two aborted landings and a few hail Marys.. just happy to be on the ground”.
Ryanair responded that “due to Storm Ashley, a small number of flights to/from Ireland yesterday (Sun, 20 Oct) were regrettably diverted to Shannon Airport due to unsafe weather conditions”.
“Passengers were notified and subsequently updated via email, SMS & PUSH notifications of the diversion and advised of their option,” a spokesperson continued.
“Despite Ryanair’s efforts to arrange alternative transport, availability of transport was limited, and passengers were advised that they could also arrange individual transport from Shannon to Dublin/Cork and that they could claim back expenses on Ryanair.com.
“Ryanair sincerely apologises to all passengers affected by this storm-related diversion, which was entirely beyond our control.”
News Catch Up: Monday 21st October