This is your captain speaking… your flight is delayed while I get a pizza: Passengers stunned as pilot admits he held up their UK flight for an hour because he ‘couldn’t give the crew sandwiches’

Passengers on a flight from Lisbon to Manchester were left stunned when the pilot admitted he held up their flight because he ‘couldn’t give the crew sandwiches’.

The easyJet plane was fully boarded and ready for departure on Sunday when the pilot went on the intercom to convey the apology to passengers, a video clip shows.

The pilot is seen explaining over the intercom that he decided to delay the flight so he could buy some better food for his crew.

He had to go all the way back through security, he says, because airport staff would not allow him to quickly return to the waiting plane.

“I couldn’t provide the crew with bad sandwiches,” the pilot tells the disgruntled passengers over the loudspeaker.

Passengers on a flight from Lisbon to Manchester were left stunned when the pilot (pictured on Sunday) admitted he held up their flight because he ‘couldn’t give the crew sandwiches’

“I had to go (back to) the terminal, go through security again, passport control, and when I asked if I could skip the line to buy something for the crew while the passengers were waiting, the answer was no,” he said . say.

‘So I had to stand in line with a hundred people. Thank you for your patience. Now we go hopefully. Thank you for your patience,” he added.

The pilot is then seen returning to the cabin while the passengers chatter in disbelief at the explanation given to them.

Messaging MailOnline about the delay, the passenger who recorded the clip of the pilot’s announcement said he was ‘delayed on an easyJet flight from Lisbon to Manchester because the plane had no hot food.’

Choosing to remain anonymous, they explained that the flight had already suffered a series of setbacks before their party had even boarded.

The passenger said the first flight they were due to return to Manchester was canceled on the day of departure, resulting in chaos at Lisbon airport.

They were assigned a flight home, but the problems didn’t end there.

“The flight’s departure was delayed until after 4pm due to no crew being available,” they told MailOnline.

“When the crew arrived and we boarded the plane, the crew announced that there would be further delays to get the crew some food.”

A photo sent to MailOnline shows a pizza box placed on a shelf in the plane’s crew compartment after the plane was delayed so the crew could get food for the flight from Lisbon to Manchester

At this point the passenger said, “The pilot decided to go get something for his crew and delay the flight further.”

‘Apparently the sandwiches weren’t good enough, so we were delayed on the plane for another hour while this pilot went to get hot food.

‘They couldn’t survive a 2 hour and 50 minute flight on sandwiches!’ they added.

They said passengers had to wait on the plane for more than an hour until the situation was resolved. During this time they were unable to get food for themselves or use the toilets on board – and were not offered drinks.

“Surely it would have been better to allow passengers to stay in the comfort of the airport lounge before boarding, while the crew took care of their subsistence,” they said.

‘By keeping passengers waiting on the plane for so long, we couldn’t use the toilets and couldn’t get food or drinks for ourselves.

“At no point were we offered refreshments or food,” they said. ‘During the flight, some passengers received some free refreshments, others did not, including myself.

The easyJet plane was fully checked in and ready for departure in Lisbon on Sunday when the pilot went on the intercom to convey the apology to passengers, a video clip shows (file photo)

The flight landed in Manchester 2 hours and 50 minutes late, the passenger said, but 4 hours and 29 minutes later than the booking’s original arrival time.

‘I would not have taken the flight if I had known the arrival would have been over 3 hours late at the time of booking and I would have looked for an alternative flight.’

A separate photo sent to MailOnline showed a pizza box placed on a shelf in the plane’s crew compartment.

MailOnline has contacted easyJet for comment.