Stanley Johnson has hit back after he caused a BA flight to London Gatwick to be cancelled.
The former PM’s dad was on board a Malaga service destined for the Sussex airport last week which had to be diverted to Heathrow due to complications on the runway.
The plane was supposed to refuel at Heathrow before taking passengers to their intended destination, but after Johnson kicked up a fuss and tried to disembark the plane it was cancelled – leaving hundreds of passengers stranded.
The incident has provoked a huge ruckus on social media, with many social media users branding the ex-PM’s dad as ‘selfish‘ and ‘arrogant‘.
But he has defiantly hit back after the episode went viral, saying he is “glad” he got the flight cancelled.
Writing in the Independent, he said: “I’m no troublemaker – if I try my hand at making scrambled eggs for breakfast and they end up sticking to the saucepan, I own up on the spot. But on this occasion, I did the right thing.”
Johnson said he wasn’t the only one to kick up a fuss about the plane being diverted.
Another woman, he said, was “verging on the hysterical”.
“I absolutely can’t go back into the plane,” she cried. “I’ve just lost my husband in an air accident. It was all I could do this morning to bring myself to get on board the plane in Malaga. I simply can’t imagine going back in it now, for another take-off and another landing. No, I’m not going to. I’m absolutely not going to.”
In the end, the authorities “went for the nuclear option”, Johnson wrote, by cancelling the flight.
“I am sorry, truly sorry, for the inconvenience caused to other passengers, some of whom no doubt had cars or loved ones waiting for them at Gatwick, and who found themselves disembarking willy-nilly at Heathrow instead.
“But on this particular occasion, I’m glad I stood my ground. And there was one passenger, at least – that poor woman whose husband had just died in an air crash – who thanked me for it.”
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