Stranded passengers sleep outside after flight U-turn

Passengers on a Virgin Australia flight forced to return to Rarotonga say they had to sleep outside the airport terminal after airline staff took their accommodation.

The flight, heading to Auckland from Rarotonga, had to turn around early this morning after a fuel indication light went on two hours after takeoff.

About 140 passengers and five crew members were onboard flight VA90, which left the Cook Islands at 11.10pm on Thursday local time (9am Friday NZ time), when the captain decided to return to Rarotonga "as a precautionary measure", a spokeswoman for the airline said.

"The safety of our guests, crew and aircraft was never in question."

However, one disgruntled passenger has hit out at Virgin for allegedly prioritising the needs of staff over fliers, telling Fairfax the airline's communication was "a real mess".

The woman said she and about 17 other passengers were told by Virgin that accommodation had been arranged for them at the Edgewater Resort. But when they arrived at the hotel they discovered it had no vacancies because air crew took priority.

The group was shuttled back to the airport, which was closed, and were forced to spend a cold night there sleeping on benches under an awning outside.

"There was an elderly lady, she would have been in her 70s, and she's beside herself, trying to sleep on a park bench, pretty much. It's disgusting," the woman told Fairfax.

The stranded passengers tried to phone Virgin, the woman said, but couldn't get through.

Airport staff also couldn't help.

The woman said the passengers were first given two $8 food vouchers before Virgin "There was no communication, they didn't even give us water ... They still haven't confirmed how we're getting home."
arranged breakfast for them at a nearby restaurant.

This morning Virgin told them the airline would try to send another plane to Rarotonga from Auckland to bring them back tonight.

The captain was following standard operating procedure by turning the plane around, the spokeswoman said.

The aircraft landed safely in Rarotonga at 2am.

Engineers are replacing a part and passengers have been moved to a new flight.

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