Elderly newlyweds spend 13 HOURS on a plane - and end up right back where they started

An elderly couple spent 13 hours on a place for their long-awaited honeymoon – but ended up right where they started.

Geoff and Sheila Bliss , 84 and 80, first met as teenagers and tied the knot 70 years later as widowers.

But their honeymoon to Madeira turned into a holiday from hell after they spent 13 hours on a plane, only to end up at the same airport they had taken off from.

Sheila has now refused to fly anywhere again after they were stuck on the easyJet flight with just a bag of peanuts each to eat.

The flight to Madeira’s Funchal Airport on Monday, October 2 was due to take three hours and 40 minutes but the strong winds meant they were unable to land.

With four other planes circling over the airport, the plane headed to Tenerife where it began re-fuelling for an hour before heading back to Madeira to try a second unsuccessful landing.

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The plane then re-routed to land at Faro in Portugal, one hour and fifteen minutes away but with no hotel vacancies in the area due to collapse of rival airline Monarch and the plane running out of food, it was forced to return to Bristol.

The whole time passengers were kept on the plane, meaning the Geoff and Sheila and their fellow travellers spent some 13 hours on board – in which they could have travelled to Singapore, Japan, Mexico or even Mauritius.

The disaster meant what was supposed to be a 1,480 mile flight took more than 13 hours and a total of 3,713 miles in total.

“Our friends and neighbours all said, ‘What the hell are you doing back here? You’re supposed to be on holiday’,” said Geoff.

He said the debacle hadn’t been handled particularly well, with passengers offered just a packet of nuts and a free drink.

When they finally arrived back in Bristol, he said they were offered another flight but they had to be at the airport at 5:30am the next morning and his new bride Sheila refused – as well as declaring she will never go on a plane again.

A spokesman for easyJet said high winds at Funchal had meant that like other airlines, some of its flights had been unable to land or depart.

“EasyJet did everything possible to minimise the disruption for our customers, securing over 500 hotel rooms for those who required them,” he said.

“EasyJet will be reimbursing anyone who sourced their own accommodation and expenses.”

The spokesman said customers in the airport were provided with refreshments and arrangements were made in Porto Santo to transport passengers to and from Funchal by chartering a ferry.

“The safety of its passengers and crew is the airline’s highest priority,” he added.

“Whilst this is outside of our control we would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused as a result of the weather conditions.”

(Top picture: SWNS)