EasyJet leave 29 passengers stranded in Spain departure lounge after taking off without them - but takes their luggage back to UK

EasyJet left 29 Britons stranded in Spain when their plane departed for England without them - but took their luggage.

Passengers had been waiting to board a Bristol-bound flight from Malaga, only for ground crew to block off the entrance to the aircraft gangway.

The passengers waited for a few minutes before watching astonished as their half-empty plane took off.

The Saturday night flight took off on time at 9.15pm with all luggage on board but half the passengers still in the departure lounge.

Angry passengers tried to get back into the airport departure area but found themselves trapped, locked out by security doors.

Two staff closing a nearby perfume shop heard them and alerted a cleaner who went to unlock them, quickly followed by a highly-embarrassed EasyJet rep.

They admitted they had not realised that the plane, which had 110 people on board, had left well short of passengers.

The stranded 29 were offered the option of a free night's accommodation near the airport or a seat on the easyJet flight to Gatwick at 10.30pm.

Ten of them spent an extra night in Spain and the rest flew back to Gatwick and made their way from there to the West Country.

One of those affected was computer businessman Iain Locke, 58, who was returning to Pensford, Somerset, after five days in Spain.

He said: 'I got to the airport and showed my boarding pass and then we were herded towards the aircraft and were waiting in the stairwell which leads to the walkway to get onto the plane.

'The stairwell was full and people were getting on the plane but then boarding seemed to stop.

'After wondering what was going on, I looked through the doors onto the airport apron and the plane had gone.

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'I turned round to the guy beside me and said 'I don't want to alarm you, but the plane has gone.' I just couldn't believe it.

'I've flown a lot and I know there are measures in place for the pilot and crew to check the correct number of passengers are on the aircraft.

'I find it unbelievable that a flight could take off with passengers missing.'

Mr. Locke said the group was promised they would be met by a coach at Gatwick which would take them back to Bristol.

He said: 'When we arrived at Gatwick there was no coach, but two MPVs and an estate car.

Mr. Locke arrived at Bristol Airport at 4.10am and paid £24 for a taxi to take him the final 16 miles home to Pensford.

He has reported the incident to easyJet, adding: 'I am not looking for compensation, but am just trying to point out how seriously things can go wrong.'

An easyJet spokeswoman said the plane took off because all the passengers had shown their boarding cards at the gate which indicated they had all boarded.

She explained there was no mandatory requirement for the crew to do a visual head count of the passengers on board.

In a statement easyJet said: 'easyJet is in the process of contacting and apologising to the 29 passengers who did not board their flight from Malaga to Bristol on Saturday 5 October due to an issue at the boarding gate.

'We have launched an investigation to understand what happened and will be offering flight vouchers and a refund of onward travel arrangements from Gatwick as a gesture of goodwill to the affected passengers.

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'easyJet arranged for nineteen passengers to travel on the next available service to Gatwick and arranged accommodation for ten passengers who travelled to Bristol the next day.'

They added: 'The bags were all security screened prior to being loaded onto the plane, which occurs on every flight.'