“WE are lucky to be home even through we are late.”
So said Tempo man Ryan Ingram and his Enniskillen partner Shauntelle Moss, who are glad to be back home after waiting for three days to return from their holiday in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh.
The couple, who currently live in Manchester, flew to Egypt on the same day a Russian aeroplane crashed over Egyptian airspace. At the time it was unclear what exactly had happened, until the couple were in the middle of their holidays.
Ryan explained, “Our gate had come up on the screen and we when we got there we noticed that there weren’t any Easyjet reps about, so we thought at that stage we would be delayed. It turns out they were in a meeting discussing whether it was a bomb or an aircraft problem. If it was an aircraft problem they were going to fly. But what delayed it was that staff weren’t comfortable flying out so they had to call stand-by staff.”
The couple were delayed for over two and a half hours, before they were allowed to fly in Egyptian air space. However this delay was nothing in comparison to the three day wait for a flight home.
Due to fly home on Saturday morning the couple did not get home until the early hours of Tuesday morning.
“We were initially told in an email that it would be Wednesday 11 up until Friday 13 when we would be able to get a flight home. But unexpectedly we got a text on Monday morning to tell us we could get a flight. We are lucky because we got to know a Scottish couple who might not get home until Friday.”
At the airport the couple noticed lax security measures with people walking through the security scanners, “like the normal airport doors”, while queues of people were lined up with only hand luggage and essentials. Ryan and Shautelle are expected to wait up to a week for their suitcases which are still in Egypt.
The situation in the airport to get British and Irish citizens home was reaching desperation as Ryan noted. “When our flight was queuing to get on the plane more people swarmed into the side and the queue became seven or eight people deep. – The British Embassy were walking about the airport with hundreds of names on a list.”
Now the couple are counting the cost of their extra days in Egypt as calls from the country to Easyjet added up to around £165, while three extra nights in the hotel cost upwards of £230.
However, it hasn’t stopped the couple from returning, “We would definitely go back. We heard stories not to leave the resort but we were on the safe side and it was fine. Last year we were in Kenya when workers were being kidnapped and this year Egypt – we like the sun and we like trouble,” Ryan laughed.
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