EasyJet denies asking passengers to vote on whether plane was safe to take off

The airline has said that, 'At no point did the pilot ask passengers to take a vote on flying the aircraft'

EasyJet has denied that a pilot asked passengers to vote on whether or not a plane should take off (Getty)

Britain’s biggest budget airline has dismissed reports that passengers on a heavily delayed flight from Malaga to Bristol were potentially asked to vote on whether to take off with only one engine working.

The Daily Mail reported that the easyJet captain “asked for a vote over whether they would like to remain on the plane or get off” and that he told them “there was a high chance that only one engine would be working”.

Flight EZY6058 from Malaga had originally been due to take off shortly before midnight on Thursday 8 June. But the flight was grounded and the passengers spent two nights in hotels in Malaga before reboarding the Airbus hoping to return to Bristol.

The pilots needed to try to use one engine to start the other, a standard procedure. According to easyJet, the captain “asked the passengers if they would like to get off or remain on board whilst the engine start up sequence continued”.

It appears that some passengers wrongly inferred that the aircraft might take off with only one engine working. While all twin-jets are designed be capable of taking off and flying with only one engine, no pilot would contemplate doing so.

An easyJet spokesperson said: “At no point did the pilot ask passengers to take a vote on flying the aircraft. Nor would we ever attempt to fly the aircraft without both engines working correctly.”

Eventually a replacement aircraft was flown in, and deployed to operate the flight. It landed at 6pm on Saturday 10 June, 40 hours behind schedule.

Another planeload of easyJet passengers were heavily delayed at the weekend. Saturday afternoon’s flight from Ljubljana to Stansted made an emergency landing at Cologne after passengers reported a “suspicious conversation”. Three men were arrested but then released without charge. The flight arrived 19 hours late.