‘My flight from hell – with the plane hit by lightning and a family on the run’

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They say lightning doesn’t strike twice – well it does if you’re on a Wizz Air plane leaving Gatwick.

The thing about a good old fashioned holiday from hell is that you don't actually realise you're embroiled in one until you're 12-hours deep.

Despite a stoic 'everything will work out soon' next time you look you're stuck in a storm, hit by lightning (twice), marooned in Albania and throwing stones at a window to wake up your AirBnB hosts.

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We’d thought we’d already weathered a nightmare of a storm when the flight that was supposed to leave at 10 finally took off at 12.

I should have seen the red flags slapping me in the face when the check-in desk manned by one flustered bloke didn’t start processing passengers until 10 minutes after the gate was supposed to have closed.

But then, he probably wasn't aware he had to load the W9 5761 from Gatwick to Podgorica all by himself.

The upshot of one fella doing the job of three is that the plane was over an hour past its 10am take off slot – and the rain lashing down outside matched our mood on board.

That delay (there will be more of them) on the runway meant another 40 minutes waiting for a slot through the storm.

Once we were up it was a pretty uneventful flight. Until we got hit by lightning… twice.

In fact one was just next to me on the left-hand wing. I saw a flash, a slight jolt to the plane and a loudish bang.

A few passengers were shocked but many – including me – forgot about it until a fateful message from the captain an hour or so later.

"We're just passing the Croatian coast," he said. "One thing that may be of interest is that we're no longer landing in Podgorica. We'll be touching down in Tirana for a quick inspection of the plane after the lightning strike".

It. Was. Of. Interest. Especially as Tirana is 160km past our destination.

Once we landed the plan was supposedly a 5-10 minute inspection before getting back underway. 'Supposedly' is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.

That turned into 30 minutes and in fact there were regular updates of 'we'll be 5-10 minutes' which lasted another half hour. It got to be a running joke.

What wasn't was families were getting hungry but the staff weren't allowed to give them food.

A fella came to inspect the wing – the nose cone had also been hit – but couldn't give a decision as it all had to go 'back to the manual' before any decision on whether we could fly. Or the booby prize – take a four-hour coach trip from Tirana to Podgorica.

Cue lots of confusion and pics of tiny holes and scorch damage going back and forth between airports, Wizz Air HQ and Airbus HQ.

But with no final decision one family made a break for it. They left the aircraft and were last seen trying to push past Albanian security (good luck with that).

That had a massive knock on for us as once passengers leave the aircraft – you have to all disembark.

We only had carry-on luggage and zipped through the airports to search for coaches with no Wizz Air reps on hand to help us.

Unfortunately a problem with the baggage carousel meant other passengers weren't getting their luggage and a 40-minute coach wait turned into a near two-hour delay as we waited for people to get their bags.

Heavy traffic on the main road meant we were delayed around Tirana but at least we were moving – and it didn't even matter that none of the coaches had toilets. Well, not yet anyway.

This did come into play when we finally reached the Albanian-Montenegro border and waited. And waited.

They looked at our passports twice – on both sides – before people had to disembark in the neutral zone to find any roadside space to relieve themselves.

Once we were on our way again our only link with Wizz Air – the driver – told us he couldn't take us to the airport as there were 'protests' but instead would take us to the 5-star Hilton. It remained vague if we were actually going to get a free room or be forced to shell out again and many of us couldn't take the chance.

Halfway through the rolling Montenegrin hills it then transpired we were going to airport… which was of course closed.

Passengers argued and after a drop off in some nondescript street by the airport we were taken to the Hilton.

Here came the big decision for us, wait in the queue to see if there was a free hotel room (or a room at all) or jump in the taxi to try and get to our final destination of Kotor – another 90minutes from where we were currently stranded.

We gambled, got the taxi and even found two Brits doing the same journey who split the bill with.

Once there we tried and failed to find somewhere for a drink and a bite to eat but it seemed like the worm was turning… until we got to our AirBnB and discovered we couldn't find the keys "hidden in a plant pot".

A commotion and a wake up of the hosts later – who thankfully lived upstairs – the holiday could start… a mere 13 hours and another country after it should have.

We celebrated by going to bed.

It was without doubt the best part of the day.

Wizz Air said: “At Wizz Air, we always do our best to get our customers to their desired destination on time and without disruption.

"Unfortunately, flight W9 5761 from London Gatwick to Podgorica on 16 September was delayed, and then had to be diverted to Tirana due to adverse weather conditions affecting the aircraft.

"Wizz Air confirms that passengers were provided with ground transportation to Podgorica within three hours of the flight landing in Tirana.

"Wizz Air sincerely apologises for the inconvenience caused by this diversion. The safety of our passengers and crew remains our number one priority.”

• Gatwick
• Space
• Family
• Holidays from Hell

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