Flight crew stuck in lift causes chaos at UK airport: ‘It’s a mess’

The flight attendants and pilot were locked in for three and a half hours

Flight delays are always an unpleasant situation. However, it is even more offensive when it occurs due to absurdity. This happened at Birmingham Airport: the flight crew and the pilot were locked for three and a half hours in the airport’s elevator. Passengers who had to catch a connection in Qatar stood in huge queues for food stamps.

There has been chaos at Birmingham Airport after flight crew, believed to include the pilot, were stuck in a lift at Birmingham Airport for more than three hours, causing travel chaos and delays for hundreds of passengers.

A Qatar Airways flight to Doha, the capital of Qatar, was unable to take off at 7:45 a.m. until firefighters freed the crew, who had been in the elevator from 6 to 9:30 a.m.

Passengers, many of whom had to catch connections in Qatar to other countries, faced what could be described as a “huge queue” for food stamps as they waited for a resolution to what they called a “snag”.

The airport confirmed that crew members were stuck in a temporary elevator and apologized to passengers for the delay. The passenger, who asked not to be named, said everyone due to take off was escorted out of the boarding area while they waited for updates.

Passengers were indignant: “The flight was scheduled to depart for Doha at 7:45 am. We were told that the pilot had been stuck in the airport elevator since 6am. Half the staff and the pilot are stuck in the elevator. It’s a mess.”

Around 10am, the airport’s departure board showed a “last call” message for flight QR36, but by 10:30am the message had changed to “gates open”. Flight tracking information shows the flight took off at 11:40 a.m., almost four hours after its scheduled departure, and landed in Doha at 8:28 p.m. local time and 5:28 p.m. UK time, the Daily Mail reported.

“In Doha, everyone has connections, no one knows when the next flight is,” said the passenger. He said there was a “huge queue” of passengers who were given food vouchers while waiting for updates: “I’m flying to Malaysia, there are people here who are going to Australia, Bali, we are now just waiting for food vouchers, which will cost around £8 but coffee costs around £4.50. If the pilot is stuck there for so long, he might not even be able to fly, obviously he’s still there.”

A Birmingham Airport spokesman said: “At 6am on January 2, airline crew reported they were stranded in one of our temporary lifts. As our lift contractor was unable to reactivate the lift system, West Midlands Fire Service removed the panel to allow the crew to exit shortly before 9.30am. We are very sorry for the airline crew and customers affected by this.”

Doha is a key hub for those traveling to destinations such as Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Qatar resumed daily flights to Doha earlier this year after a three-year hiatus caused by the pandemic, with the Emirates and Saudi Arabia also helping to meet demand for Middle East destinations from the Midlands.