More than 120 Air France and TUIfly Belgium passengers blocked in their plane after terror threat at Toulon airport

A security measure disrupted the operations of the international airport: the service was interrupted Thursday for more than two hours until 21:30

A man arrested at Toulon-Hyères airport threatened the passengers by shouting “Allahu akbar”. As a consequence: the rotations to Paris-Orly, provided by Air France, and to Antwerp, provided by TUI fly Belgium, were compromised.

Some 120 passengers remained stranded on the tarmac at the time of disembarkation. The flight AF7508 from Paris-Orly (operated by Airbus A319 F-GRXB) landed at 19:42, but the passengers walked on the soil of Hyères only at 21:30.

Also concerned by this delay, the flight TB4185 of the Belgian company TUI fly from Antwerp (operated by Embraer E-190 OO-JVA), which landed at 19:37. Passengers had to wait until 21:30 to be allowed to disembark.

As for departures, flight AF7509 to Paris-Orly scheduled for 20:35 finally took off one hour and 30  minutes late, at 22:05.

“But the delay has been partially caught up during the flight,” explains an Air France spokesman, who states that this delay due to exceptional circumstances does not qualify for EU261 compensation.

In addition, 104 passengers to Antwerp had to wait at the airport for an hour and a half, according to the Belgian company TUI fly: flight TB4186 took off from Toulon at 22:00, instead of 20:30, and landed in Antwerp at 23:30, after the theoretical night closure.