- A Qatar Airways pilot and crew members got stuck in an elevator for over three hours.
- The fire service had to remove a panel of the elevator at Birmingham Airport to let them out.
- The flight took off nearly four hours later than scheduled.
A Qatar Airways flight was delayed Tuesday after the pilot and crew members got stuck inside an airport elevator for more than three hours.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was due to take off from Birmingham Airport in the UK at 7:45 a.m. but didn’t depart until nearly four hours later, per data from Flightradar24.
An airport spokesperson told Business Insider that the flight’s crew members reported being stuck in one of the airport’s temporary elevators at around 6:00 a.m.
Six people were trapped inside the elevator when firefighters arrived on the scene two hours later, a West Midlands Fire Service spokesperson told BI.
When a contractor couldn’t get the elevator working again, the fire service had to remove a panel to let the crew out three-and-a-half hours later.
“Working with on-site engineers, we freed the six people using tools, a ladder and scaffold boards,” a fire service spokesperson said. “No-one was hurt.”
“We are very sorry to airline crew members and customers affected by this,” the Birmingham Airport spokesperson added.
The Daily Mail reported that everyone due to fly on the plane was moved away from the boarding area while they waited for updates.
And there was a “massive queue” as travelers waited for a meal ticket during the “shambles,” one passenger told the Mail.
According to the newspaper, many of the passengers were due to catch connecting flights from Doha, where the plane landed three hours later than scheduled.
Qatar Airways did not immediately respond to BI’s request for comment.
BI understands that the two temporary elevators at Birmingham Airport, which have been in use since last summer, have been taken out of service.
The cause of the system failure is being investigated.
