Hundreds of passengers were left unanswered: the flight attendants were completely drunk

British Airways has launched an urgent internal investigation after an evening of heavy drinking, allegedly involving flight attendants at a luxury Caribbean resort, forced the cancellation of a long-haul flight and left hundreds of passengers stranded in Barbados.

Four flight attendants were suspended following the incident, which took place at the all-inclusive hotel located on the beach in Bridgetown. The sudden cancellation of flight BA254 on Sunday left around 336 passengers stranded in the Barbados capital, with many of them having no idea why their return journey was unexpectedly cancelled.

According to witnesses at the pastoral resort, which caters mainly to honeymooners and families, the evening quickly descended into total disorder as the alcohol continued to flow. Guests at the venue claimed that several members of the crew became heavily intoxicated during a round of vodka and beers, which took place just hours before they were due to board the transatlantic flight back to the UK.

Frustrated holidaymakers, many of whom had long saved money for what they described as a “trip of a lifetime”, began recording the group’s behavior on their mobile phones after one of the flight attendants threw up in the hotel bar. At the same time, another steward collapsed and needed help to be carried back to his room. When the guests turned to the drunk crew members and protested their behavior, they responded with disdain and mumbled speech: “We are a British Airways crew, what’s the problem?”.

This behavior led to official complaints from hotel guests, which left the shocked airline executives with no choice but to disable the entire original flight crew for safety reasons. Since flight crews are required to observe a period of complete dryness from alcohol before operating an aircraft, the entire crew was removed from the flight.

A source from the airline stated that “while a night’s stay in luxury hotels in remote destinations is considered one of the most significant perks of working on long-haul flights, the behavior of this particular group was completely unacceptable.” According to him, “it is a great privilege to stay at such resorts, and while it is understandable that the crew members wanted to enjoy their free time, some of them behaved in a way that is not appropriate for the airline.”

To get the crew back to the UK, British Airways had to fly all the crew as regular passengers on different flights over the following days. The four suspended workers arrived back in the UK in the early hours of Tuesday morning to face a disciplinary committee. Aviation industry sources warn that the financial damage to the company could easily reach hundreds of thousands of pounds. Beyond the immediate costs of compensating passengers and arranging alternative solutions, the airline may be forced to find entirely new accommodations for future crew stops in Barbados if relations with the current resort are permanently damaged.

This operational headache comes just weeks after another major disruption experienced by the airline, when a flight from London to Las Vegas was forced to make an emergency landing. In a separate incident, a portable phone charger exploded at 30,000 feet, causing smoke to fill the passenger cabin and prompting a temporary fear of a terrorist incident, until the pilot was able to control the panic and land the plane safely.

A spokesman for British Airways confirmed that an official investigation into the matter of the drunken flight attendants is already underway, and said: “We expect the highest standards from our crews, and are investigating the issue urgently.”