An Eastern Airways trip from Aberdeen to Wick has been reviewed as “the worst flight ever” by a YouTube travel writer.
Edinburgh-based Steve Marsh, who has 27,400 followers on his video channel described staff on his 25-minute flight from the city to the north of the country as “offensive”.
Mr Marsh posted his video yesterday and it has already had 18,000 views.
Couple paid £200 for flights
Flights between Aberdeen and Wick have recently resumed after a two year absence.
Writing on his YouTube page he said: “We were super-excited to learn of the return to service of Eastern Airways between Aberdeen and Wick in Caithness, Scotland.
“So excited that we splashed £200 for a couple of return flights in their first week back since 2019.
“Surely this will be a friendly wee airline, right?
“Well that’s not what we experienced on both the outbound and return legs.”
He added: “Watch on to see why we’ll never fly this airline again. Like ever.”
There were five passengers on the 19-seat airplane. The outbound flight was the T3 561 Aberdeen Wick on April 14 2022 arriving at 10.10am.
‘Probably the rudest cabin staff I have ever come across’
After being asked to pay £6.50 for a bacon roll in Aberdeen International Airport, Mr Marsh steps forward to get on to the flight.
As he does a member of cabin crew tells him to “switch that off” referring to his Go Pro camera.
Mr Marsh is known for making videos aboard flights, but was unable to capture any of the scenery – such as Dunnet Head lighthouse – because staff not only “demanded” all phones were off, but went around the cabin checking for themselves.
During the journey, staff were said to have made passengers feel uncomfortable in the way they spoke to them.
Arriving in Wick, Mr Marsh said: “If you want to start your trip with a bad taste in your mouth – fly Eastern Airways.
“It’s probably the rudest cabin staff I’ve ever come across on any flight I have ever been on.”
Mr Marsh was travelling with a female companion
He said: “There were five passengers, they (the cabin crew) managed to offend most of us. Including demanding to make sure all phones were switched off.
“I wasn’t even allowed to put my jacket under the seat in front, she insisted it was belted into its own seat, in her usual friendly manner.”
Asking his viewers if they had ever experienced anything similar to this behaviour, he said: “(It is) something I have never encountered in all my years flying.”
‘The flight got a lot worse’
He described the flight as a “tense, awkward onboard experience”.
The flight took a route out over the north coast of Scotland at Dunnet Head which Mr Marsh described as “beautiful”.
He said: “When we were coming into Wick the scenery was stunning. Lighthouses, castles but I couldn’t film any of it.
“While (Wick) town centre would not win any prizes for beauty,” he said, “We had an absolute blast.”
Returning to the flight for the return trip he said: “The only flight I have not looked forward to, got a lot worse.
“This time we had cabin crew were openly dissing previous passengers. And complaining they were so tired – we started to question the safety of this airline.
‘Such a shame’
“Such a shame as 99% of people were friendly and professional.”
Mr Marsh said his return flight was on the Wick Aberdeen route on April 15 arriving at 6.30pm on flight T3568.
Mr Marsh said: “Sorry for not delivering the video of the flight.”
Eastern Airways has been approached for comment.
