Volunteers helped stranded airport passengers

Guernsey Civil Protection Volunteers said being called in to support passengers forced to spend a night at Guernsey Airport was a "a new one on us".

Nine passengers had to spend the night in the terminal on Saturday after a flight between the island and Jersey was cancelled due to severe weather and no accommodation could be found for them.

Dave Hodge, Guernsey civil protection officer, said his team had been deployed just before 22:00 BST by the airport authorities to deliver respite kits, which included inflatable mattresses and sleeping bags, for the stranded passengers.

The Blue Islands flight was due to depart Guernsey at 20:25 BST on Saturday, but was cancelled an hour later due to severe thunderstorms over Jersey, the airline said.

The airline said 10 passengers had succeeded in securing alternative accommodation but airport representatives could not find suitable options for nine others.

Mr Hodge said: "The decision was made to maintain them at the airport because they already had got a lot of the additional facilities they would otherwise have needed to cover like toilets and catering."

"By the time we'd had a chat with them and left the site, we believe they were in good shape and we hope they had a good night's rest on our equipment," he added.

Guernsey Civil Protection Volunteers is staffed by 30 voluntary workers who are on call 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week.

Mr Hodge said: "The island has a plan for these kind of things and wider-scale incidents where, if people need to be evacuated from their homes, there is a rest-centre plan in place."

He said the emergency planning team managed the respite plans and there were places around the island that could be used for the provision of services if the need arose.

A Blue Islands spokesperson said: "Disruption is the last resort, however, safety of our passengers, crew and aircraft is always our number one priority.

"While these circumstances were out of our control we apologise for the inconvenience."

On Sunday, Guernsey Ports chief operating officer, Ross Coppolo, thanked the Guernsey Civil Protection Volunteers for their hard work.

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