A number of Irish passengers will arrive back in Dublin this evening after enduring a 33 hour delay on their flight home from Cyprus.
Their Helios Airlines flight was due to leave Pathos Airport at 7 am yesterday but was cancelled without any reason given to the passengers. However it is now due to arrive, via Gatwick, at 11 pm this evening.
The other flight, direct to Dublin, was scheduled to arrive in Dublin at 11.30 pm, but its departure has not yet been confirmed.
Passengers had complained they had not been given any explanation for the cancellation of their original flight. The airline, Helios Airways, had grounded its fleet on Sunday just over a week after one of its planes crashed in Greece killing all 121 passengers and crew aboard.
The Department of Foreign Affairs this morning confirmed it had contacted the airline and were assured the passengers would be flown home today.
A passenger this morning told RTÉradio a travel agency representative was unable to get information from the airline and that there was little assistance for the passengers who stayed overnight at the airport.
She said there were around 200 people waiting to board a flight home, while as many 50 other passengers had been unable get through check-in at Larnaca.
"It's total chaos, we feel like hostages here . . . the atmosphere is terrible, we're not getting any information - just from the local airport people - but none of the Helios Airline people have come to meet with us," the passenger told Morning Ireland.
A woman who is seven months pregnant is among the passengers while another woman was taken to hospital last night suffering from what is believed to be high blood pressure.
The airline grounded all three of its planes pending examinations by independent experts. One of the airline's flights was also forced to divert to Stansted Airport after taking off at Luton Airport when the pilot reported gear problems.
A preliminary report on the plane that crashed on August 14th said the plane had lost cabin pressure and ran out of fuel before it crashed.