Tui passengers forced to exit via emergency slides in Belgium after urgent alarm sparked unexpected landing
The alert forced pilots to file a request for emergency services to meet them on the tarmac (file photo)
PA
Tui passengers arriving in Brussels on Tuesday were forced to take emergency slides off their plane after alerts began sounding about a fire on board.
The flight had been coming into land in the Belgian capital after a near-three-hour trip from Greece - but when pilots were told of the potential blaze on board, flyers were ordered to evacuate.
With just seven minutes until Tui Airways flight TB2252 was due to land at Brussels, an alarm started to ring in the cockpit indicating a fire had broken out in the cargo hold.
The alert forced pilots to file a request for emergency services to meet them on the tarmac - but after just five minutes, the alarm stopped.
TB2252 had been approaching Brussels from Heraklion when an alarm began sounding
GB News
Crew had questioned whether an emergency call was needed after the all-clear was received - but passengers coming back from Heraklion on holiday island Crete were in for another twist upon arrival.
When TB2252 touched down, the fire alarm started ringing again - leaving the now-grounded plane stranded on the runway so returning holidaymakers could be ushered off.
The aircraft's emergency slides inflated before all 123 passengers and crew could be successfully guided away from the plane.
With emergency services already on the tarmac thanks to the earlier call from pilots, responders quickly got going with an investigation into the erratic alarms.
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The Tui flight's 123 passengers and crew slid away from the craft to safety in Brussels
PA
After a thorough look through the Tui flight's cargo hold, investigators were unable to find any evidence a fire - or even smoke - had ever broken out.
Despite reports of panic on board, passengers were then able to proceed as normal with their baggage intact.
Tui passengers' eventual safe passage from Greece to Belgium stands in stark contrast to what happened just weeks ago in the midst of the global IT outage which wreaked havoc on airlines across the world.
Flyers attempting to get back to the UK from Rhodes were left sleeping on an airport floor - with one, Andrew Rankine, telling local outlet Bristol Live that the sheer amount of tired travellers stranded at the terminal had "taken up the length of the building".
Rankine said Tui had provided passengers with a food voucher so they could buy dinner at the airport following the inconvenience - but he claimed said voucher was only valid in one shop, and the outlet had run out of food within half an hour.
While Jo Smart, who found herself in the same situation, said: "It's really annoying because we've all got work and animals that we have to get back to... It's frustrating not knowing anything. There's people on the floor, kids with no blankets or pillows.
"We just feel abandoned, just left here with no accommodation - it's just shocking."
GB News has approached Tui for comment.