‘The Plane’s Gone’: Jet2 Passengers Left in Stairwell After Boarding Error at Manchester Airport

On Monday, 19 January 2026, a Jet2 flight — flight LS879 — departed Manchester Airport (MAN), Manchester, United Kingdom, for Alicante, Spain, without approximately 35 passengers who had already cleared security and had their boarding passes scanned.

The group was instructed to wait in a stairwell leading to a remote stand (often used when an aircraft cannot be reached by jet bridge), where they remained for up to 40 minutes without any formal communication — only to be told by an airport worker after the aircraft had departed that “the plane’s gone”, reported Mirror.

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Jet2 flight LS879 Boarding Sequence and Stairwell Confusion

Passengers due to fly on Jet2 flight LS879 at around 07:00 GMT were checked through security and had their boarding passes scanned at the gate area. Instead of being directed onto either a jetbridge or a bus to reach the remote stand aircraft, a cluster of passengers were led down a stairwell adjacent to the gate.

They understood this to be a staging point for boarding but were not informed of the aircraft’s imminent departure nor given clear instructions on how to proceed.

Passengers waited for approximately 40 minutes in the stairwell — expecting staff to open the next set of doors or signal them to board the aircraft — yet no Jet2 employee returned. A witness described feeling “literally stuck like caged animals” at the bottom of the stairwell.

Eventually, an airport worker came over and reportedly said, “the plane’s gone” — confirming that the flight had departed without the group on board.

Jet2 later stated the event was caused by an “error on the stairwell directions” and has launched an urgent investigation, while offering the affected passengers alternative flights and modest vouchers.

Eyewitness accounts

Passengers — including one man named Matt, from Denton — described confusion over why doors were not being opened and why no airline personnel returned to facilitate boarding. Matt stated his son, who suffers from anxiety, was particularly distressed by the lack of communication and clarity:

” So we’ve all come to the terminal and everybody’s gone through from 26 to 40, then they called the rest of us. We’ve all gone through to the gate and boarded…..But instead of carrying on onto the plane, there were some stairs so the herd mentality is that we all went down the stairs and followed each other. There was a lot of us. And then we’re thinking ‘why aren’t these doors open’. We thought a bus would come for us and take us to the plane. We were there for 10 minutes, 20, 30, then we thought ‘what’s going on’. We were literally stuck like caged animals.”

After a while, an employee of Jet2 came and told Matt and others that the plane had left, leaving them gob smacked.

Aircraft involved — Type and Operational Context

Jet2 commonly operates the Boeing 737-800 and Airbus A321 for routes like MAN→Alicante. According to data from FlightAware, Jet2 operated its Airbus A321, the aircraft type whose name starts with A and number 3, on this route today. jet2 has three Airbus A321-200 in its fleet and these average 11.4 years. Its 24 Airbus A321neos average just over a year.

According to data from planespotters.net, one of its A321-200s s is currently parked:

Jet2.com Airbus A321-200 cabin configuration: 220 all-economy seats, seat pitch 29–30 inches, seat width 17.5 inches, no recline, configured for high-density regional leisure operations. Jet2.com Airbus A321neo cabin configuration: 232 all-economy seats, seat pitch 28–29 inches, seat width 18 inches, no recline, optimized for high-density short- to medium-haul leisure operations.

How did Jet2 respond to the event?

Mirror quoted the apology of Jet2 in the following way:

“We are aware that flight LS879 from Manchester to Alicante departed without some customers this morning, and we are investigating this as a matter of urgency with the airport. Our team are looking after these customers, and we have already arranged for them to take other flights to Alicante today. “We would of course like to apologize to these customers.”

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All in All

This coverage highlights how Matt was indignant with the carrier. Matt said he was shocked to learn that no formal headcount was carried out once boarding began, arguing that the aircraft appeared to depart with dozens of empty seats and questioning why this was not flagged by the flight crew.

He added that passengers were given £10 vouchers while awaiting rebooking, with several elderly travelers and his anxiety-prone son left visibly distressed. Matt attributed the incident to a missing barrier that should have directed passengers onto the aircraft, calling the breakdown in basic boarding control bewildering and unprecedented.