Boris Johnson’s Father Blamed For Cancellation of British Airways Flight After Earlier Incident at Gatwick Airport

Stanley Johnson, the father of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has been blamed for the cancellation of a British Airways flight which was forced to divert to London Heathrow Airport after an earlier incident at Gatwick Airport when another BA plane made an emergency stop on the runway during takeoff.

British Airways flight BA2641 departed Malaga in Spain at around 11:35 am on Friday and was due to land at Gatwick just over two hours later, but the flight was disrupted when all flights to and from the airport were stopped due to a stranded BA Boeing 777 on the runway.

The Airbus A321 aircraft circled south of Gatwick for a while before diverting to London Heathrow Airport, where passengers were told that the plan was to refuel and then continue onto Gatwick, where many of those onboard had their cars parked or already had transport arranged.

Once on the ground, however, some passengers claimed that Johnson and another passenger insisted they wanted to get off and end their journey at Heathrow.

The situation allegedly became so fraught that the police ended up getting called and after missing a slot to get them to Gatwick, British Airways decided to cancel the flight.

Passengers then had to be taken into the terminal and eventually driven to Gatwick, where they were originally intended to finish their journey.

 “The plan was to refuel and the aircraft was given a slot to fly to Gatwick,” one passenger told The Independent. “However as Stanley Johnson decided he wanted to get off – along with another passenger – we subsequently missed the slot.”

“It took a few hours to sort and ultimately BA cancelled the flight. All passengers then had to deplane and proceed through immigration and then take a bus to Gatwick,” the passenger continued.

Another witness claimed Johnson, who missed out on a Knighthood in his son’s controversial honours list, became “quite irate” during the incident.

British Airways has taken a diplomatic approach to commenting on what happened onboard, simply saying: “Due to earlier disruption at Gatwick, the flight diverted to Heathrow where it terminated.”