RUSSELL Goldstein trembled with rage as it became clear he was very likely to miss his mother's funeral in Manchester.
''I can't get anyone from the management of Cathay Pacific to tell me what the delay is about and when we can leave,'' he said.
He and more than 200 other passengers had been waiting since Wednesday evening for their London-bound flight to take-off.
With his mother's unexpected death earlier in the day, the sudden strike by Cathay's cabin staff and the delay exacerbated an already distressing end to a holiday in Southeast Asia.
Mr Goldstein had checked in, made his way through immigration and Customs and found a place in the restricted area to wait for his boarding call on Flight CX251 direct to Heathrow.
But, to his astonishment and frustration, 13 hours dragged by before the plane finally took off around midday yesterday.
In the meantime he and his fellow passengers had been shuttled to the Hyatt Regency Hotel, in Nathan Road, in the middle of the night, woken at dawn to be taken back to Kai Tak and then told to stand in line for several hours.