grandma ryanair flight
The flight was taking off from Palma, Mallorca to Manchester (Picture: Reuters/Getty)

A grandma travelling on a Ryanair flight suspected a bomb might go off after an unidentified man snuck onto the plane.

Barbara Watson, 64, had just been on a relaxing holiday in Majorca and was flying back from Palma to Manchester on Thursday afternoon.

But she was left frightened when a man from the previous flight managed to sneak on to her flight without a ticket.

Her fears and suspicions then grew as the grandma thought of the worst case scenario.

She said: ‘It was an absolute fiasco.

‘Loads of kids were crying, including my 10-year-old granddaughter because she heard someone say there could be a bomb onboard.

‘Stewardesses searched all lockers, told everyone to put their own luggage back up.

‘Everyone was out of their mind with worry and stewards had to come with jugs of water for everybody stuck there with engine roaring.’

At one point, Barbara became extremely concerned about the welfare of her 76-year-old partner.

FILE PHOTO: A Ryanair Boeing 737-800 airplane takes off from the airport in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, July 29, 2018. REUTERS/Paul Hanna/File Photo
The grandma feared the worst on board the Ryanair flight (Picture: Reuters)
Palma International Airport, Mallorca, Spain. Departures check in terminal exterior on an upper floor. (Photo by: Education Images/UIG via Getty Images)
Ryanair has issued an apology (Picture: Getty Images)

She continued: ‘My partner was at the side of me. He has terminal cancer and has had a heart attack.

‘He was using his spray and I had to calm him down so he didn’t have another.

‘The flight that came in, everyone got off board and one person stayed on the bridge and was hiding.

‘When we all got onto the bridge, he mingled around with us and got back on board.

‘The stewardesses told us that he was hiding on board out of view of them waiting to see which seat was free.

‘He sat in the seat, we got on the runway and the pilot stopped the flight and told us we’d have to go back to the gate as the numbers weren’t adding up.

‘The senior steward asked to see his boarding pass but obviously he didn’t have one because he’d come out on the flight and got back on, for whatever reason no one knows. Then someone came on and arrested him.

PALMA DE MALLORCA, MAJORCA, MALL, SPAIN - NOVEMBER 08: Several planes on one of the runways at Palma Airport, on November 8, 2021, in Palma de Mallorca, Majorca, Balearic Islands, Spain. A total of 13 arriving flights were diverted last Friday 5 November after a group of travellers occupied the runway. The people who caused the incident are 12 Moroccans who have been arrested and this Monday have been brought to court after being charged with public disorder. (Photo By Isaac Buj/Europa Press via Getty Images)
Many passengers were left frightened by the incident (Picture: Getty Images)

‘The captain was great, he came over and told us he’d been arrested and that they didn’t know why he’d done it but he’d been acting suspiciously.

‘It was a fantastic holiday so it’s a shame that it had a bad ending.’

Because of the incident, the flight took off an hour and 20 minutes later than scheduled at 6.39pm.

A Ryanair spokesperson said: ‘The crew of this flight from Palma to Manchester (04 Aug) requested police assistance ahead of take off after identifying a passenger that was not booked to travel on this flight.

‘The passenger was removed and the crew carried out security checks again ahead of take-off, as per Ryanair procedure.

‘We are working with our handling agents in Palma to ensure that this error doesn’t reoccur.

‘Ryanair sincerely apologises to affected passengers for any inconvenience caused.’

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