Aer Lingus has "sincerely apologised" to hundreds of passengers who were on board a Dublin-bound flight from New York, which was forced to turn back following engine trouble.
Flight EI106 from New York to Dublin was due to arrive this morning, but was forced to turn back to JFK Airport after a short flight time due to what the airline has described as "a technical issue".
Passengers on board reported hearing several loud bangs, and seeing sparks coming from one of the planes engines.
Many passengers used social media to register their dismay after several hours with no update in relation to when or how they may get home for Christmas.
The airline said this afternoon that the safety of all those on board was its first priority, and that the flight had to be cancelled for that reason.
It said teams are working to re-accommodate all passengers with alternative flight arrangements and are endeavouring to ensure all customers depart New York "by the evening of 25 December".
It has said that the "majority" of passengers have had their alternative flight arrangements confirmed to them, and that they are "working through the remainder to ensure everyone has certainty on re-accommodation arrangements."
"We are also working to book hotel accommodation for those customers who need to stay overnight before they depart."
Despite initial messages circulating to passengers informing them of a recovery flight, the airline said that "at the moment, there is no recovery flight scheduled", and that text message and email updates will be sent to affected passengers "shortly".
When asked about previous messages sent to passengers which indicated that a recovery flight would take off at 8.30am local time, the airline said that "this message was sent in error".
"We're contacting guests who have not been rebooked by phone to get them on the next available flight," it said, while again apologising for the disruption.
"Nobody was really speaking, everybody was in shock"
One passenger, Kathryn Toolan, who is originally from Co Leitrim and has been living in the United States for the last 10 years, was on board the flight. She said that there were "five or six big bangs".
Speaking to RTÉ News, she said she thought at first that birds had hit the engine.
"I was actually right on the wing, looking at it, and we were only up in the air for a few minutes and there was maybe 5-6 quite big bangs. My first thought was 'have birds flown into the turbine?'
"It was consecutive big flashes and then the right engine was in flames for moments after each bang. That rocked the plane a bit and everybody was a bit shook up. We clearly heard the engine being turned off because it basically went silent on the right side of the plane.
She said the pilot alerted passengers to the issue, before informing them that while the situation had been addressed, they could not continue further and had to return to JFK.
"Nobody was really speaking, everybody was in shock," she said.
She added: "I was on the right side of the plane so I saw the whole flashes and essentially the explosions, but people on the left side also saw the sparks, as they were big enough to flutter over and across the plane, which was scary"
"The pilot was great, he landed super easy and warned us it would be a totally fine landing, and that the engine was off so there would be no issue"
"Then we sat on the tarmac for about an hour and a half while waiting for a gate to be assigned … there's been no help at all since then".
"There is the potential to go home, but just not in any time for Christmas"
Ms Toolan said Aer Lingus had informed some passengers that there would be a recovery flight, but that only some people had received details.
"We got off and the gate agents said there is a recovery flight and so we should stick around, but we should pick up our bags, which took two hours … we’re Irish, we know the cold, but it is really cold here, in an open baggage claim area".
She added: "The people here on this side, they had no information, at that stage the crew had all gone, before the pilot handed us off he said they obviously want to get home for Christas too. From then, the only contact we’ve had with Aer Lingus is tweeting them, calling them, and getting blanket 'sorry we’ve no information for you right now’ responses".
Ms Toolan said nothing had yet been confirmed in terms of a recovery flight, with only some people receiving text messages. Some of the messages, she said, confirmed a recovery flight, while others said the flight in question was not happening.
Responding to some passengers on Twitter, the airline said in a message that "at the moment, there is no recovery flight scheduled", and that text message and email updates will be sent to affected passengers "shortly".
When asked about previous messages sent to passengers which indicated that a recovery flight would take off at 8.30am local time, the airline said that "this message was sent in error".
"We're contacting guests who have not been rebooked by phone to get them on the next available flight," it said, while again apologising for the disruption.
Ms Toolan said passengers were stuck in limbo with no clarity, as there were no Aer Lingus representatives or desk available.
"There is the potential to go home, but just not in any time for Christmas".
"There are a couple of us who have rallied together talking amongst ourselves. We're all fairly traumatised after the engine exploded. There’s been nobody really checking in at all, no update, no acknowledgement that it happened. We’re standing in the departures lounge eating while waiting to hear anything from Aer Lingus"
"If they had just point blank said ‘sorry, no recovery flight, go home and the next flight is 27 December’, that’s fine, but you’ve told us there is a recovery flight, they literally told us they were going to send over an empty plane, and we have to get the crew home too"
"I’m OK here because I met other people that went through this in the airport here, and yet Aer Lingus may as well be a non-entity or a Twitter bot during this".
She said the pilot had mentioned the initial engineer to inspect the plane upon landing had said that there was nothing immediately wrong, but that further investigation was going to be needed to ascertain exactly what went wrong.
