A flight full of holidaymakers returning to the North East was delayed by more than 16 HOURS yesterday (October 17) after the plane coming to pick them up was diverted on route.

The holidaymakers were more than 16 hours delayed returning to Newcastle Airport from Rhodes on Monday after the outbound flight was forced to reroute to Athens due to ‘adverse weather conditions’.

Jet2 have now confirmed that the long delay was caused when crew were unable to work the flight back to Newcastle, after the outbound flight was diverted.

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Flight tracking service Flight Radar 24 shows that the outbound flight was nearing its final approach to Rhodes when it completed a full U-turn and changed direction to go to Athens.

The Northern Echo: Flight tracking service Flight Radar 24 shows how the plane was diverted away from Rhodes at the last minute. Picture: FLIGHTRADAR24Flight tracking service Flight Radar 24 shows how the plane was diverted away from Rhodes at the last minute. Picture: FLIGHTRADAR24 (Image: FLIGHTRADAR24)

The diverted flight, codenamed LS581, took off from Newcastle Airport at 3.35pm on Sunday afternoon headed for Rhodes, where it was due to land shortly before 8pm.

But when it was just off the Rhodes coast, the plane was forced to turn around and divert to Athens at 9.55pm after poor weather conditions set in.

The plane, a Boeing 737, landed at Athens Airport, before later taking off on the 47 minute journey to Rhodes, arriving just before midnight at 11.57pm.

It meant the passengers waiting at Rhodes Airport for their return flight arrived home more than 16 hours late, shortly before 5.30pm on Monday (October 17) afternoon.

Jet2 has now apologised to passengers for the delay.

The Northern Echo: The outbound flight from Newcastle was forced to divert due to weather conditions. Picture: NQ ARCHIVEThe outbound flight from Newcastle was forced to divert due to weather conditions. Picture: NQ ARCHIVE (Image: © 2017 Tony Pick)

A spokesperson for the airline said: “Due to adverse weather conditions in Rhodes which were completely beyond our control, flight LS581 from Newcastle to Rhodes diverted to Athens on Sunday (16th October), before taking off later and safely arriving in Rhodes.

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“This unforeseen delay resulted in our crew running out of operating hours, meaning that the return flight from Rhodes to Newcastle could not operate that evening.

“Our team worked extremely hard to look after customers, including providing hotel accommodation, before flying home the following day. We would of course like to apologise to customers for any inconvenience caused.”

It comes after another Jet2 flight returning to Newcastle Airport from Turkey was forced to divert to Sofia in Bulgaria last month (September 26) after a passenger required medical attention.

The September 26 flight was diverted just an hour and 20 minutes into the journey.

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