Woman's fury after she's kept on plane for hours before passengers greeted with 'sea' of abandoned bags strewn across Manchester Airport

‘A sea of bags’ greeted passengers arriving in Manchester yesterday evening, a mum has claimed, as she described the chaos in trying to get off her plane.

Kaia Lear, 42, was coming back from a week-long break in Cancun, Mexico, on Sunday afternoon (June 5) only to be held on the plane for hours. Ms Lear also says that there was a delay in getting bags off — which she says she was told by those at the airport was down to ‘inexperienced’ staff.

She claims she was told those staff were unable to work ‘unaccompanied’ as they did ‘not have enough clearance to walk around on their own’. A spokesperson for Swissport, which handles bags at the Airport, says it is ‘working hard’ to ‘find solutions for this industry-wide issue’.

READ MORE: What to do if your bags get lost at Manchester Airport

“We were slightly delayed [arriving], and when we got there there was another plane on the stand at the gate and we were waiting for that to vacate,” Kaia told the Manchester Evening News. “When we did pull up they removed the air bridge and they did not think we would need it.

“The pilot repeatedly tried to call them. It was the third phone number that they answered. In the meantime they were not unloading the bags.”

Kaia, from Nether Alderley in Cheshire, says that when they were allowed off the plane they were greeted with a huge number of bags. “Coming downstairs we can see the odd bag here and there stranded. We came round the corner and we could see a sea of bags.

“At the darker end there was just bags and bags piled up. It was unbelievable. Everyone coming downstairs though ‘what is going on’.

“The labels were from all over. We asked and the staff said people have waited for more than two hours and just given up and been told to