Passengers have accused Stanley Johnson of inflicting a diverted British Airways flight to be cancelled.
The author, who’s Boris Johnson’s father, 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 had been diverted – together with the Malaga flight.
The plan was to refuel the Airbus A321 at Heathrow and, with the runway open once more, make the quick flight to Gatwick. But some passengers had been eager to disembark – together with Mr Johnson, in accordance to passengers.
One of them, Richard Davenport, instructed The Independent: “The plan was to refuel and the plane was given a slot to fly to Gatwick. However as Stanley Johnson determined he needed to get off – together with one other passenger – we subsequently missed the slot.
“It took a couple of hours to type and finally BA cancelled the flight. All passengers then had to deplane and proceed by means of immigration after which take a bus to Gatwick.
“With a automotive parked at Gatwick we didn’t have to possibility to simply depart at Heathrow. It left 99.5 per cent of passengers with a bitter style.”
At one stage airport police had been summoned to take care of the difficulty, passengers say.
Another passenger, Annemarie, instructed The Independent: “Apparently Stanley Johnson refused to keep on the aircraft, together with a terrified flyer. They had been getting fairly irate, therefore the police.
“This caused carnage as a result of the airline can’t make you keep on the aircraft in opposition to your will. And as a result of so many passengers needed to get off, it could have caused hell at Heathrow with passengers having to declare their baggage after which those that needed to go to Gatwick to maybe declare their baggage then recheck in once more and it could have meant the crew had been out of flying hours.
“The airline made the choice to cancel the flight.”
A spokesperson for British Airways stated: “Due to earlier disruption at Gatwick, the flight diverted to Heathrow where it terminated.”
The crew stayed on board the plane, which was wanted again in Gatwick to fly holidaymakers to Crete. According to knowledge from Flightradar24, the aircraft lastly made the 19-minute flight to Gatwick at 5.30pm on Friday afternoon.
The meant flight for the plane, to Heraklion, was cancelled.
Stanley Johnson was approached for remark.