Ryanair passengers were “imprisoned” on a stairwell as their flight took off without them, they claim.
Around 35 passengers, mainly elderly, went through the boarding process at Edinburgh Airport, hoping to get to Krakow.
But, for reasons unknown, Ryanair held them in a stairwell, locking doors at the top and bottom as the flight made its “getaway” without them, taking all the boarded bags - a clear breach of passengers' personal security, although all airport security protocols are understood to have been followed with regards to bags.
Passengers told the Record that brass-necked Ryanair staff, who’d checked their passports and boarding cards, then squeezed past them on the stair before locking the door at the bottom.
The staff boarded the flight and flew away with the priority passengers who’d been lucky enough to get on earlier.
The Record was sent an extraordinary Ryanair flight log that staff had compiled then left at the abandoned boarding gate - which appeared to falsely state that all 179 of passengers to show up for flight FR6624 had safely boarded the plane.
Passengers only managed to get out when one angrily activated an emergency exit after a full hour on the stairwell.
Honeymooners Mark and Cara Henderson, from Aberdeen, were stunned to see online that the flight had taken off without them, as they were standing in the cramped stairwell.
Personal trainer Mark, 32, said: “People were so frustrated at the delay and one of the passengers checked online and realised the flight had actually taken off.
“We were all stunned because there’s no way that Ryanair staff didn’t know that we were not on board. Staff had came through us then got on the plane, locking us in behind them.
”We can only guess at what was behind it but some people were asking if their main priority was making their take-off slot then dealing with the passengers later.
“We are angry because we got penned in, which made all the frustration of the delay worse. People were furious.”
Mark and shipping company worker Cara were married in Inverness on Saturday and had looked forward to their “minimoon” before a bigger break later in the year.
Edinburgh IT worker Nicolas Vasquez, who was flying with partner Renata Bachul, saw the flight document that stated all passengers had safely boarded.
He said: “Apparently all 179 people were on the plane but that just didn’t happen.
“Maybe you could understand if a few passengers were missing and they didn’t do a head count but this was something else altogether. So many of the passengers were locked into the stairwell that it was obvious.
“There were lots of old people too, who were forced to stand for hours and couldn’t even get to the toilet, which was pretty bad.”
Nicolas was the one to realise the flight had left when he used an online tracker. He also pressed the emergency unlock door button to allow passengers to escape.
Friends Tom Brady, 70, and Tom Hartley, 77, shared a hold bag, which flew to Krakow ahead of them.
Tom Brady said: “We were literally held prisoners in the stairwell. That would be no exaggeration. Doors were locked at either end.
“We are only away for four nights and that’s the first one been ruined. It seems extraordinary to me that we actually checked on to the flight and were counted as on board but we never got there.
“The plane was officially very busy but there would have been spare seats all over the place.”
Angry passengers remonstrated with Swissport after the Ryanair staff left. They were told the boarding procedure was entirely the responsibility of the Irish airline.
Travellers were put on an alternate flight around 9pm, due to get them in around five hours late.
No-one from Ryanair got back to us last night.
