Cruise passengers 'stranded' after air con failure to be flown home

Cruise passengers 'stranded' after air con failure to be flown homeImage source, Judith DunnImage caption, Judith Dunn had booked onto the river cruise as a special treat.ByKaty Austin, Transport correspondent and Simon Browning, Transport reporterPublished3 minutes agoCruise passengers left stranded in Budapest for two days during a heatwave after the ship's air conditioning failed will now be flown home.Multiple people booked on to a river cruise aboard the Skyla, operated by Tui, complained to the BBC's Your Voice about a lack of information and said elderly passengers were struggling as temperatures in the city rose above 35C this week.Tui has apologised and told passengers it has arranged flights home for tomorrow and a full refund.Judith Dunn, 83, had paid £2,000 for the planned trip along the Danube River and told the BBC the heat on board was "absolutely stifling".She was one of 146 people booked on the trip, which was meant to be a special treat for her and a friend.It would have spanned Judith and her late husband's 60th wedding anniversary and the 80th birthday of her friend, whose husband passed away a year ago.She said it turned into a "nightmare". Judith and other passengers arrived in the Hungarian capital on Monday lunchtime, but were brought to the ship only to be told the air con had broken. Around 1930 local time, she said they were transferred to hotels and had to make their own arrangements for food."We have since found out that the air con has been broken for a little while, in fact the people who were here last week on a cruise had to be in a hotel as well. So they did know about this, so we were a little bit upset by that."Europe has been in the grip of a heatwave, and temperatures are forecast to hit 39C in Budapest on Tuesday.Passengers were today taken back onto the ship for lunch.Another traveller, Melanie Roberts, praised the crew for ensuring there was plenty of water.But she said t...