Stanley Johnson, the father of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has been accused of forcing a diverted plane to miss its take-off slot – after he insisted on being allowed off the aircraft before reaching its final stop.
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Stanley Johnson accused of getting a flight cancelled – but how?
There was a day of travel chaos at Gatwick Airport on Friday, with the runway being closed for almost an hour. An inbound flight from Malaga was then diverted to Heathrow as a result. The plan, initially, was to complete the journey after refuelling.
However, as reported by travel expert Simon Calder in The Independent, Stanley Johnson wasn’t willing to play ball and wait it out with the other passengers. He, alongside at least one other individual, allegedly demanded to disembark at the West-London hub.
“The plan was to refuel the Airbus A321 at Heathrow and, with the runway open again, make the short flight to Gatwick. But some passengers were keen to disembark – including Stanley Johnson.”
“He was aboard BA2641 from Malaga to London Gatwick. When a separate British Airways flight rejected take off at Gatwick, the runway was closed for 50 minutes and 16 flights were diverted – including the Malaga flight.” | Simon Calder
Gatwick travel chaos spills over to Heathrow commotion
The saga allegedly ran for ‘a few hours’, and police were eventually called in to deal with the disturbance. After no resolution was found, the flight missed its allotted take-off time, causing the Gatwick-bound crowd to get off at Heathrow.
Though that may have suited Mr. Johnson, those travellers with cars parked at Gatwick faced an almighty upheaval. This fiasco has generated a major backlash online, with many social user media branding the ex-PM’s dad as ‘selfish‘ and ‘arrogant‘.
And yes, you guessed it… there are a lot of ‘like father, like son’ comments knocking around, too.