Around 170 Belgians found themselves stranded at Palermo Airport in Sicily (Italy) on Saturday evening, due to a technical issue grounding their plane, according to travel operator TUI.
The issue had been identified on Friday when the plane was scheduled to depart from Naples. A technical inspection of the plane's wings had to be carried out. A series of setbacks, including the global CrowdStrike computer system failure on Windows – a problem which particularly disrupted airports – delayed this inspection.
The plane was therefore prevented from taking off from Naples on Friday, only gaining permission to leave the tarmac on Saturday.
At Palermo, passengers boarded for Brussels, only to then disembark. They then had to find accommodation for the night. Financial compensation will be automatically offered to the affected passengers, stated TUI spokesperson Piet Demeyere. "It truly is Murphy's Law," he added.
