Coalisland woman among stranded passengers during height of Storm Frank

A Coalisland woman was among the passengers who were forced to wait aboard their plane on the runway at Belfast International Airport for more than two hours because of high winds.

By The Newsroom

Published 31st Dec 2015, 10:10 BST

Clare McStravog told the TIMES she and her fellow passengers had to leave the airport without their luggage on Tuesday evening as Storm Frank raged on.

“We landed in Belfast from Birmingham at approximately 8.15pm, we were told it was the airport’s health and safety policy that they couldn’t bring the steps out”, Clare continued.

“At one point there were eight planes on the runway with passengers that couldn’t disembark.”

Winds on Tuesday night were gusting at 55 knots and it’s understood gusts of over 48 knots are not safe for airport staff to work in.

Flights from Luton and Tenerife were diverted to Dublin.