British Airways fuel emergency: Passengers describe ‘total confusion’ after landing in Lyon amid Storm Ciara

‘Even hardy blokes were absolutely terrified,’ says customer on BA2749 from Geneva to Gatwick

Passengers who endured a three-hour “flight to nowhere,” two aborted landings at Gatwick airport and a fuel emergency on approach to Lyon have been speaking of the fear on board – and the chaos when they finally landed.

British Airways flight 2749 had taken off almost three hours late from Geneva, the main airport for the French Alps.

The Airbus A320 flew towards Gatwick and after flying in a holding pattern made two unsuccessful attempts at landing.

“There were quite a few passengers with tears,” said a traveller who wanted to be known only as Dave, describing the landing attempts. “Even hardy blokes were absolutely terrified.”

“It was fine until we got through the cloud layer, then were were buffeted about. I thought, ‘There is no way we are going to land in these conditions.’ The pilot was fantastic at keeping us informed.”

Eventually the pilots decided to fly to Lyon in southern France – just 61 miles from Geneva airport, where the journey had begun.

But after spending more than twice as long as the normal flight time aloft, the crew were running close to their fuel reserve – which allows for 30 minutes of flying. They declared an emergency in order to be prioritised for landing at Lyon’s St-Exupery airport.

Once on the ground, they were kept waiting on the aircraft for a further two hours, according to passenger Robert Macnaughton.

“We have just been let off the flight after waiting two hours on the tarmac at Lyon,” he told The Independent. “No help at Lyon, no assistance of any sort. On the plane for seven hours with nothing from BA.”

He has now rented a car to drive home. “We are pretty sanguine about it, but it doesn’t reflect that well on BA on many levels,” he said.

“There’s total confusion here,” reported Dave, who is travelling with his partner Alison. “There’s a lack of information and lack of BA staff. We’ve been told to come back in an hour.”

The Independent has asked British Airways for a response.

Under European air passengers’ rights rules, airlines are obliged to provide hotels and meals to disrupted passengers, as well as a flight to the intended destination as swiftly as possible.