Jetstar passengers who were left stranded for 30 hours at a Queensland airport slept on the floor after a flight bound for Melbourne was cancelled last-minute due to an engineering issue

       

FlightBungle has forced dozens of Jetstar passengers to spend the night on the floor of a Whitsundays Airport. Let's go live to Abby Guerin with the details. Abby, they were left stranded for more than 24 hours. 

These passengers claim they were abandoned. Melissa, they were scheduled to take off from Whitsunday Coast Airport at about 11 o 'clock yesterday morning bound for Melbourne. But just moments after boarding that flight, they were told there was an engineering issue and asked to return to the terminal. 

They say they didn't hear much from Jetstar after that until about midnight last night when they were all handed blankets and food vouchers and told to bunker down for the evening. Families with young children, the elderly, a pregnant woman all caught up in this chaos. 

Jetstar issuing this video statement today apologising for the mess. We endeavored to send an aircraft in to Prosopine last night to fly them back to Brisbane where there was additional accommodation available 

because there was none in the surrounding areas of Prosopine last night. Unfortunately, due to the weather, that aircraft was unable to land. There's a very old lady who's very reliant on mobility aids wheelchair. 

Her son flew up to bring her back home, I believe. She's just come out of hospital and she had no choice but to sleep on the floor of the departure lounge last night. We're told that early this afternoon that flight did eventually take off. 

Andrew, turning what should have been about a three hour journey into a 30 hour one. That's the long way home, isn't it? Abby, thanks.