Wales fans ground Montenegro flight from Cardiff after bird strike

Hundreds of Welsh football fans due to watch their country play Montenegro on Monday have had their plans postponed after their plane collided with a bird in mid-air.

They were due to depart from Cardiff Airport on Friday evening, but their plane was grounded for security checks following the bird strike, causing delays and frustration for some travelling fans.

Tour operator Wonky Sheep has advised customers to stay home and wait for an update while alternative plans are made, but BBC Wales understands some fans have already booked separate flights from London.

“We are doing our best to find a solution,” the operator said.

“Unfortunately, these kinds of incidents happen in aviation and no matter how hard we tried, it happened too late to operate the flight as planned.

“We told our supporters as soon as possible and made sure those who needed shelter had somewhere to stay.

“We would never intentionally disappoint our fans and we are doing our best to find a solution.”

Wales fan Richard Grigg was due to fly from Cardiff Airport to Podgorica in Montenegro after the Wales match. 0-0 game against Turkey at Cardiff City Stadium on Friday evening.

“We got a message at half-time last night saying we weren’t allowed to travel to the airport and we had to go home,” he said.

“We’ll wait until they let us know if they’ve arranged a flight. Otherwise we’ll have to look at other options.

“We paid for this flight with Wonky Sheep and we would prefer a direct flight from Cardiff. Otherwise we would have to go to London.”

Some fans “didn’t wait and paid for another flight from Heathrow,” he added.

“It’s frustrating having to wait for updates and we’d like to know one way or another so we can come up with an alternative plan.”