Airline begins mission to rescue passengers

The battle began today to bring hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded around the world back home.

Airline Monarch launched a rescue operation for people from the Black Country and Birmingham marooned on Spanish islands.

Passengers were due to be flown into Madrid at 8am today, before being bused back to Birmingham via Calais.

Coaches of holidaymakers from ski resorts in France were also arriving back at Birmingham International Airport today.

Nick and Susan Marlow from Bliss Gate near Bewdley were on a coach back from Meribel with children Katie, aged eight and James two, laid on by ski company Espirit.

They were due to arrive back in Birmingham at 11am yesterday but instead had a 24-hour coach journey from the resort arriving back at Birmingham at 8.30am today.

Susan, aged 42 said: "It wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. It was very busy at Calais, with lots of coaches.

"We found out about the volcano by text from my mum last week, but when you are on holiday you never turn on the news so we didn't really know much about it."

An assistant headteacher from Birmingham due to start a new job today has been left stranded in Tenerife for at least another seven days.

Elena McMahon, who was on a week's holiday with husband Ian and their one-year-old son Malachy, was supposed to fly back home on Thursday.

Because of the ash cloud from man Icelandic volcano which has grounded all flights in and out of the UK, the family were unable to catch a plane home.

Now airline Ryanair has told the couple they may have to wait until Sunday before they can fly home. And if there are no places on any weekend flights, it could be no sooner than May 1.

Mrs McMahon, aged 28, who was due to take up her post of assistant head teacher at Kings Heath Boys School, in Birmingham, said she was devastated. Education staff from Dudley on a fact-finding trip to Italy have also been stranded.

Around 30 childcare providers from schools within Dudley Council's directorate of children's services were in northern Italy for the conference and tour of education facilities in Reggio Emilia.

They were due to fly back to Stansted on Saturday morning, and many are now struggling to rearrange childcare for their families. Dudley Council is arranging for a coach to pick up the stranded party.

Nine of the workers stranded are believed to be staff from Woodside Community School and Childrens Centre, Highgate Road, Dudley.

Monarch will be using an Airbus 320 on a rescue flight from Palma, Majorca, which has room for 174 passengers.

Monarch passengers that were stranded in Majorca the longest have been contacted directly via text with details of the flight.

Tim Jeans, managing director, said: "At Monarch we are endeavouring to do everything we can to assist our customers and the rescue flight from Palma tomorrow is evidence of this. With almost 8,000 Monarch passengers currently stranded on the Spanish islands it is important that we mobilise this flight and schedule additional rescue flights to operate as quickly as we can."

There were just a dozen passengers at Birmingham Airport this morning, sleeping on benches or sitting in cafes.

Dave Fenton, aged 50, handed back the keys to his home in Blakenhall, Walsall, on Thursday morning when he was due to fly out to a new IT job in the Philippines.

He said: "I have been waiting for a flight out since Thursday. I have been sleeping on the seats and eating whatever I can find."

Teachers Sheena Ball, aged 53 and Sarah Richards, aged 35, from Bromsgrove both arrived on the coach today from Meribel.

Mother-of-two Sarah said: "The ferry from Calais was absolutely jammed and we had to wait for an extra two hours in Folkstone at 3am.

"We heard about it on the news last week and our reps came to tell us arrangements were changing. It has been a long journey but we are still in good spirits."