By Stephen Slominski

Storm Darragh caused chaos for passengers heading for Southampton Airport on Saturday evening (Dec 7), forcing two flights to divert and leaving passengers far from home.

Strong winds and heavy rain made landings unsafe, with one flight diverted to Gatwick and another to Birmingham, 125 miles away.

EasyJet flight U2 1583, was en route from Geneva to Southampton with a scheduled arrival at 6:45 pm Due to severe weather conditions, the aircraft was diverted to London Gatwick, landing at 7:17 pm and passengers had to complete their journeys by road.

A spokesperson for EasyJet confirmed that their aircraft, an A320, had to be diverted due to strong winds: “As the weather wasn’t set to improve we arranged for customers’ onward transport to Southampton by road. The safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew is always easyJet’s highest priority and while these circumstances were outside of our control we would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused by the diversion.”

Passengers on a KLM flight had a worse experience.

The flight, operated by Eastern Airways, was travelling from Amsterdam to Southampton with a scheduled arrival at 5:52 pm. But after two aborted landing attempts due to wind shear, the Embraer 190 with seating capacity of 100, was initially diverted to Gatwick but subsequently rerouted to Birmingham Airport, landing at 6:55 pm.

Passengers experienced confusion upon arrival. Writing on Facebook, Peter Roberts, a passenger on the flight, recounted: “The aircraft aborted the landings due to wind shear. Now sat in a taxi back to SOU. Deep joy.” Another commenter wrote: “They gave up trying to land and diverted to Gatwick. Then aborted Gatwick and headed to Birmingham. Managed to land there and waited for 2 hours for a coach which never materialised. They have now been put in taxis to come back south. Madness.”

The Met Office had issued warnings for Storm Darragh, with gusts reaching up to 80 mph, making landings particularly hazardous. Southampton Airport confirmed the disruptions on its live updates page.

Passengers affected by these diversions may be eligible for compensation under European air passenger rights regulations. KLM has been contacted for further comment. Travellers are advised to consult the Civil Aviation Authority’s guidelines for filing claims.

This story originally appeared in Eastleigh News