Air Malta plane stranded in Athens after damage to door

An Air Malta aircraft was stranded at Athens airport yesterday after ground handling crew accidentally slammed the passenger steps into one of the doors, causing some damage.

The incident with the Airbus A320 left some 112 passengers delayed for 24 hours as there was no space for any of them on planes heading out to Malta.

Flight KM 743 was meant to leave Athens at 7 a.m. when the door was damaged.

A spokesman for the airline said the incident is a common one but pilots will only fly after they are given the all-clear by engineers, who decided to have the airplane repaired before it is allowed to take off.

The passengers, who were taken to a hotel paid for by the airline, are expected to fly back on the same plane this morning. Civil aviation industry sources said the flight could have returned yesterday but cabin crew members objected.

One of the passengers phoned in to complain about the fact that Air Malta had left them with no food but eventually the airline also paid for the group's lunch.

The incident delayed other flights to Tripoli and Leeds.