Carlos and Lidia Pita found themselves stuck in the South American country after strict travel restrictions made it nearly impossible to return to the Island. However, after four days of travelling, the couple, who had originally been visiting family, finally touched down at Jersey Airport to be warmly greeted by their loved ones.
The pair said they were ‘over the moon’ to have reached the end of their nightmare, explaining that the return leg of their journey had not been as straightforward as they had hoped.
‘It was very stressful,’ said Mr Pita. ‘When we were leaving Venezuela we had to wait inside the plane for seven hours. The petrol was running out, as they had to keep the air conditioning going, and then the captain told us we didn’t have enough fuel to go straight to Frankfurt. Everybody was scared – no one knew what was going on.’
The flight eventually departed Venezuela in the early hours of Sunday (31 May), but instead of flying directly to Frankfurt it had to stop in Las Palmas to swap the crew and refuel. Once the couple eventually reached Frankfurt they were able to fly to Heathrow, but further complications arose when they found out they could not use their original train tickets to get to Gatwick.
‘We were already tired, so instead of getting multiple trains to London and then to the airport, we decided to get a taxi as it would be almost the same price,’ Mr Pita said.
He added that flying through Gatwick was a surreal experience, with barely any outbound flights in operation.
‘Everything was closed – the airport was dead. Nobody was there. You could have heard the flies buzzing around,’ he said.
After being told their flight to Jersey the following day would ‘hopefully’ be operating as scheduled, the couple managed to find a place to stay the
night and get something to eat.
Mr Pita added: ‘We were exhausted by the end of it, nearly four days of travelling. It’s crazy when you think we only went for a three-week holiday.
‘I’m so, so happy to see my family, my daughter, my friends – I have no words to describe it.’
