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A Singapore tour group who was holidaying in Japan spent nine hours in Tokyo's Narita International Airport after their Scoot flight was delayed.
According to Shin Min Daily News, a group of 55 travellers scheduled to take the 10am flight on Sep. 8 back to Singapore was affected.
Based on a photo shared by passenger/poster girl Jayner Teh, the group was travelling with travel agency EU Holidays.
Photo from Jayner Teh's Facebook
What happened
Teh told Shin Min that there were many seniors and children in the group of travellers, and there was at least one person who requires the use of a wheelchair.
She added that they woke up before 6am to have breakfast before heading to the airport to make the flight.
They were apparently told about the delay a few minutes before they were scheduled to board.
30 minutes after the initial announcement, passengers were told to wait for another half hour.
Ground crew allegedly attributed the delay to their luggage and meals being loaded onto the plane, and that the plane had to be disinfected before passengers were allowed to board.
Teh shared that they were famished by 1pm, but still could not board the flight.
They were reportedly not allowed to leave the waiting area near the gate, as ground crew told them that arrangements were being made for them to take another flight instead, and their name could be called anytime.
At 2pm, they were told to move to another gate and asked to queue up.
However, the passengers only received dining vouchers after waiting in line.
Unable to use dining vouchers
Teh told Shin Min, "A lot of the stores at the airport were closed. Those which were open didn't accept the dining vouchers, so the tour group's leader ended up buying some water and biscuits for us."
At 4:30pm, the passengers were told that they would be taking a Singapore Airlines flight back to Singapore instead.
The flight was scheduled for 7pm -- nine hours after their original flight.
Scoot confirms technical fault with plane
In response to Mothership's queries, a Scoot rep confirmed that there was a "technical fault detected with Scoot flight TR809".
Although the fault was detected prior to the flight's scheduled departure time, the required spares had to be sent to Tokyo, and the flight could not be recovered in time.
They added that passengers were re-accommodated to two flights -- TR899, which departed Narita at 2:42pm and has a stopover in Taipei before landing in Singapore, along with SQ11, which departed at 7:05pm and flew directly to Singapore.
Scoot claims they provided customers with refreshments and meal vouchers during the delay, and assisted customers with connecting flights where necessary.
Top photos from Jayner Teh's Facebook