Twin glitches leave Oasis fliers stranded in London for a night

More than 240 passengers on local budget carrier Oasis Hong Kong Airlines were stranded in London on Sunday night after two consecutive problems caused the cancellation of a Hong Kong-bound flight at Gatwick airport.

Flight O8707 was first delayed by the late arrival of an incoming plane - which was to be the turnaround flight to Hong Kong - and then by a tow bar snapping on a vehicle towing the plane on the tarmac.

An airline spokeswoman said the delays meant the flight missed Gatwick's curfew time by a minute.

The flight was rescheduled for 11.55am London time yesterday and passengers were put up at hotels near the airport. Originally due to arrive in Hong Kong at 3.40pm yesterday, it will now arrive at 8.30am today.

Flight O8707 had been due to leave Gatwick airport on Sunday at 8.10pm. Passenger Chris Chinnery said the incoming flight - scheduled to arrive at 6.10pm - did not touch down until 40 minutes after Flight O8707's scheduled departure time.

'The plane was very late coming in and we set off with a few minutes to spare. We were about to taxi out and push back when the captain announced that the tow bar had snapped, so they were going to be five minutes looking for another one,' Mr Chinnery said.

'Then we got somewhere over halfway down [the taxiway] and we stopped and the plane turned left. Then they made the announcement that we had missed the 11.30pm deadline and the airport was closed.'