Virgin Airlines let 18 Cloncurry-bound passengers down – literally – on Monday.
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The 18 travellers were aboard the Monday morning 6.05am flight from Brisbane to the Isa and were then scheduled to take the short hop from Isa back home to Curry at 9.55am.
The plane got in as scheduled to Isa before 9am but that’s where things started to go wrong as Michelle Newton – one of the Cloncurry bound passengers aboard the flight which was then scheduled to fly on to Brisbane – explained.
“We had re-boarded the flight at Isa when the captain the came on over the intercom to say they were over their weight load and there would be a delay while they sorted it out,” Ms Newton said.
“A while later he came back to apologise and said the flight was overbooked and they asked the Cloncurry passengers to volunteer to be offloaded at Isa.”
Ms Newton said they were told the Virgin booking system had overbooked by 18 passengers and they patiently got off and waited in the airport for a bus to Cloncurry.
“ One lady I was sitting with lives in Kyuna and the person picking her up has already arrived in Curry,” she said.
After the 18 passengers’ bags were removed the plane left Isa at 10.30am without them and ground staff gave them a $8 meal voucher while they waited for their bus.
Two hours after arrival in Isa, they boarded the bus to Cloncurry to be dropped at the airport.
“We did ask about being dropped in town, bit the driver has advised he can't do that,” Ms Newton said.
A Virgin Australia spokesperson said Virgin Australia flight VA1005 departed Mount Isa to Cloncurry Monday morning incurred “a weight and balance issue” which resulted in some passengers not travelling on the flight.
“The safety of our passengers, crew and aircraft is always our number one priority and we apologise for any inconvenience this may have cause,” the spokesperson said.
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