A pregnant woman collapses after hours waiting for takeoff of her Brussels Airlines flight blocked on a Manchester taxiway by a Cathay Pacific plane

A pregnant woman needed medical attention on board a Brussels Airlines plane stuck on the runway at Manchester Airport, with passengers growing increasingly frustrated as they waited for hours.

A pregnant woman collapsed after waiting many hours for her plane to take off. A problem with a Cathay Pacific flight stuck two other planes on the runway amid scenes of chaos at Manchester Airport last week.

A technical problem was detected in the plane which was to leave for Hong Kong and blocked two other planes on the taxiway, a TUI Airways towards Cape Verde and a Brussels Airlines towards Brussels, including that of the pregnant woman.

A passenger on the flight to Brussels said people sat in their seats for nearly six hours waiting for takeoff, with only water being offered for free. The flight was originally scheduled to take off around 12:30.

The plane was finally towed to the terminal around 18:00, with passengers given the option of remaining on board or finding alternative transportation. Manchester Airport has since said that “all necessary procedures” have been carried out to ensure passenger safety.
Chaos

A passenger heading for Bruges told the Manchester Evening News that a pregnant woman had “collapsed” and described how passengers grew increasingly frustrated as they sat next to the runway for hours. “The poor pregnant woman collapsed and two people on board stepped in to help her. It was after hours of sitting on the tarmac behind the broken down plane,”

A Brussels Airlines spokesperson said: “As previously mentioned, a Cathay Pacific aircraft was blocking the runway due to technical issues, which meant that our aircraft OO-SND (flight SN2174) was also blocked for several hours on the runway. from Manchester. Due to UK safety regulations, it was impossible to be towed to the terminal.”

“Despite the difficult situation, we have done our best to find solutions for all of our passengers. Connecting passengers have been rebooked on other flights. Only those with Brussels as their final destination left with our own flight to Brussels in the evening.”

“We mentioned earlier that the passengers eventually disembarked and were brought to the terminal by buses. This indeed did not happen as the steps arrived shortly before the Cathay Pacific aircraft cleared the runway and our aircraft was able to taxi back.“