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SAY WHAT: Ryanair crew forced to sleep on airport floor in Spain

There's a powerful image going viral online right now. It shows Ryanair pilots and cabin crew sleeping on the floor of an office at Spain’s Malaga Airport after being left stranded by a storm.

There’s a powerful image going viral online right now. It shows Ryanair pilots and cabin crew sleeping on the floor of an office at Spain’s Malaga Airport after being left stranded by a storm.

Immediately the image raises so many questions: is this genuine? why are they there? And how long after this ‘rest’ did the pilots have to fly?

According to the SNPVAC union which represents Portuguese airline crews, eight Ryanair pilots and 16 cabin crew were stranded at Malaga airport on the night of October 13 when their flights to Porto, Portugal were diverted.

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Four flight crews apparently spent four and a half hours in the room from 1:30 am to 6am without access to food or drinks. There were just eight seats between the 24 staff.

Chief Operations Officer of RyanAir, Peter Bellew has responded to the image on Twitter saying the situation unfolded because “all hotels were completely booked out in Malaga”.

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“The storm created huge damage in Portugal. Later after this the crew moved to VIP lounge. Apologies to the crew we could not find accommodation.”

Chief Operations Officer of RyanAir Peter Bellew

The union said it is true the crew were moved to the VIP lounge but not until 6am and the crew still had no access to food or water.

The image, which first appeared on a Facebook page called Ryanair Must Change, was later shared on Twitter by user Jim Atkinson and has been retweeted thousands of times.

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Image: WSWS

The image has been widely condemned on social media with those on Twitter using the hashtag #RyanairMUSTchange.

 

What do you think of the situation? Let us know below.