Scots face 'terrifying' flights and travel chaos amid Storm Isha strandings

A red weather warning was put in place for many parts of the country.

Flights to Scottish airports were forced to abandon landings, in-air emergencies were declared and passengers left stranded due to Storm Isha.

A red weather warning was put in place for many parts of the country with other forms of travel such as train, bus and ferry services facing major disruption due to high winds and debris.

Hundreds of passengers were left stranded in Cologne overnight after four flights for Edinburgh were diverted due to bad weather.

Passengers were told accommodation would be provided but footage showed disgruntled holidaymakers stranded at the airport in the early hours of the morning.

One Ryanair flight due from Tenerife was diverted to the German airport where some passengers were left sleeping on the floor, STV News understands.

Flights in and out of Scotland were affected by storm conditions on Sunday evening, with one flight arriving from Amsterdam to Glasgow Airport being diverted to Manchester Airport due to an “aborted” landing.

One passenger shared the “terrifying” moment the plane began to descend before aborting its landing.

A TUI flight from Sharm el-Sheikh bound for Glasgow declared an in-air “emergency” after failing to land on the runway.

Flight BY803 was airborne for around seven hours before landing at around 10pm in Manchester.

A Glasgow Airport spokesperson said the flight was diverted due to current weather conditions and that disruption occurred across many airports.

A number of flights from Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh airports on Monday morning were subject to cancellations and delays.

A spokesperson for Glasgow and Aberdeen airports said individual airlines should be contacted for updates.

“With Storm Isha continuing to cause disruption across parts of the UK, we would ask passengers to contact their airlines direct for flight updates,” a spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Edinburgh Airport said: “Our teams worked well under challenging circumstances as Storm Isha caused cancellations to some flights on Sunday.

“The airport is open and operational with flights departing and arriving.

“As always our advice to passengers is to check with the airline they are flying with for any updates to their flight.”

A spokesperson for EasyJet said: “Storm Isha impacted all airlines’ operations on Sunday 21 January unfortunately causing some diversions including flight EZY3174 from Amsterdam to Glasgow which diverted to Manchester and landed normally in line with procedures. 

“As the weather was not set to improve, the flight was delayed overnight.

“We did all possible to minimise the impact of the disruption, providing hotel accommodation and meals for those who required them and the flight is scheduled to depart this afternoon (Monday).

“The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority and while this was outside of our control, we would like to apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused as a result of the weather.”

TUI and Ryanair have been contacted for comment.

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