EXHAUSTED holidaymakers stuck in delay hell finally took off – only for their plane to turn back and make an "emergency landing".
Hundreds of passengers arrived at Manchester Airport for their the 6.10am Tui flight to Dalaman, Turkey, but were hit with travel chaos.
They finally departed at 9pm on Friday but immediately sensed something was wrong with the flight.
Many passengers smelt smoke onboard and were informed an hour into the flight there was a fault with the plane, MEN reports.
They were left terrified as staff informed them they needed to turn back to Manchester for a potential "emergency landing".
The plane was greeted by firefighters on the tarmac but it was another hour before the Brits were let back in the airport where coaches would take them to hotels for the night.
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The fed-up holidaymakers were then hit with more misery when their promised transfers back to the airport failed to show up – meaning they had to fork out for taxis the next day.
They ended up being delayed for a staggering 30-hour delay – with some passengers giving up on their holiday entirely.
Molly Charfe's grandad, who paid more than £15,000 for their family of 13 to go to Dalaman, ended up going home as the delays proved too much.
To make matters worse, her brother flew separately from the family from Gatwick so arrived alone ahead of his relatives.
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Molly said: "We were glad to have finally set off but we could all smell fumes straight away. It felt like something had fallen off the plane when we were landing, it was wobbling loads.
"When the morning flight was delayed our grandad had to go home as he's vulnerable and unwell at the moment, he paid £15,000 for a big family trip together but it's been ruined for him now, it's so sad.
"We've all been crying. You can't complain about what happened to the plane but the communication has been awful. They're not looking out for our welfare at all, it feels like they're delaying more and more so people will just leave.
"It's been so traumatic, especially having been on a plane which had to emergency land."
Maria Cooper, who is travelling with her partner, described the situation as a "nightmare".
She added: "People are trying to keep in high spirits and everyone is trying to help each other, especially the families with lots of big bags and young kids, but it has stressed everyone out so much. Kids have been crying a lot they're so upset.
"Everyone has lost confidence in the whole thing. The airport staff have been great in trying to help us but no one from TUI has been there at any point to tell us what's happening next.
"It's genuinely abysmal, it's not acceptable to be treating people like this for such a big company. It's shameful.
"This is some people's first holiday since the pandemic, and some kids first ever holiday, people are completely traumatised, it's like a film. We're all zombies at this point."
Manchester Airport has been hit with travel chaos due to staff shortages in recent weeks.
Other airports have also experienced long delays amid fears the mayhem is only going to get worse next month as the school holidays start.
A TUI spokesperson said: "We’d like to apologise to customers travelling on TOM822 from Manchester Airport to Dalaman which was unfortunately delayed due to a technical issue.
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"We aim to communicate with customers as quickly as we can if there are any changes to their holiday and offer transport, overnight accommodation, meals and refreshments as needed.
"We understand that last minute delays are incredibly disappointing and would like to reassure customers that we do everything we can to get them away on their holidays as planned. We’d like to apologise again for the inconvenience passengers travelling to Dalaman experienced and we thank them for their understanding.”
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