Finnish passengers stranded in Crete return home after unexpected flight delay
Finnish passengers who were stranded in Crete have now returned home. More than 100 travellers were stuck in Chania, after a Norwegian Air flight to Helsinki was unable to depart due to technical issues on Wednesday evening.
Among the stranded passengers was Pia Silfver, who confirmed that the travellers were able to fly back to Finland on Thursday evening, almost a full day after their original scheduled departure.
The same aircraft that was meant to fly the passengers back to Finland on Wednesday was eventually used for the delayed journey. “The hydraulic fault had clearly been fixed, it was the same plane and same crew,” said Silfver.
Due to the delay, Silfver missed a day of work. Passengers were informed about the new flight around 11 am on Thursday.
Silfver described the atmosphere at the airport on Thursday evening as calm, as the same group of passengers gathered once again to wait for their flight to Finland. She noted that some people had only managed to secure accommodation for themselves in the early hours of the morning between Wednesday and Thursday.
Even while boarding the plane, some passengers still didn’t fully trust that they would make it home. “Once we were already on the plane, there was some confusion. Someone said, ‘let’s have a drink at the resort then’,” Silfver recounted with a laugh.
According to Silfver, the Finnish passengers handled the situation very well. “Finns don’t really have a rebellious spirit. And I don’t see that as a bad thing,” she said.