BYKATE HEANEY
TRAVEL weary pilgrims from the Raphoe Diocese were glad to get home from Lourdes on Tuesday having endured flight delays of up to 36 hours.
Some 153 pilgrims, some of who were infirm, found themselves stranded after two planes they were to travel on developed technical problems.
The last group of pilgrims' ordeal began on Sunday morning when they arrived at the airport for an 8.45 am flight home with Joe Walsh Tours.
An earlier flight carrying many of the older and more invalided passengers had departed on time and they arrived back in Donegal on Sunday as scheduled.
However it was 36 hours later before the remaining 150 passengers got home.
The pilgrims waiting on Sunday morning at the French airport were eventually returned to their hotel at 3.30 pm after hearing their plane had developed technical problems. They were bussed back to the airport at 11.30 pm having been told their was another plane arranged to take them home.
They waited and waited and after three and a half hours they were told this second plane had also developed technical problems.
They returned to Lourdes again where they were accommodated in a number of hotels.
IRATE PILGRIM
One irate pilgrim contacted the Donegal News to encourage the stranded travellers to seek the compensation from Joe Walsh Tours they would be entitled to under EU aviation law. An angry Helen Coyne, a nurse who lives in Dublin, made the journey to Lourdes with her elderly mother Grace Sweeney.
"We were just abandoned there. There was very little information given to us about what was happening. Some of those left behind may have spent all their money and could not have bought themselves a cup of tea if they wanted. Some were incontinent and everyone was sleep deprived because of the coming and going to different hotels.
"My car was at Belfast airport and I drove immediately to Donegal to bring my mother home. I then had to go to Dublin to go back to work. I was so tired I had to pull off the road a number of times to rest. People are entitled to compensation and they shouldn't be shy about looking for it," Ms Coyne added.
Pilgrim Seamus Harkin from Creeslough said the whole thing was a terrible ordeal.
"At the beginning the mood was good. There was great joviality but it started to wear thin. There were carers whose husbands went home in wheelchairs," Mr Harkin said.
Pilgrim Mary Gallagher blamed Joe Walsh Tours for the extraordinary delays.
"They are a reputable firm and it was just incredible that they couldn't get a plane to get us home. People were upset and very frustrated by Monday. It would have been nice to know exactly what was going on," Ms Gallagher said.
The annual Lourdes pilgrimage was organised through local travel agency Driftaway travel. Managing Director Deirdre Grant said that the weekend events were completely out of their control.
"To have two aircraft developing technical difficulties just beggar's belief. Safety is always the utmost concern and all the passengers were accommodated by Joe Walsh Tours and got their meals," she said.
Ms Grant added that the fact that it was a Bank Holiday weekend in Britain had compounded the difficulty of securing alternative aircraft. The last of the pilgrims eventually arrived in Belfast Airport on Monday and were bused back to Letterkenny.
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