Stranded

I'm trying to imagine this happening in the US with hundreds of thousands stranded in various places in the world and whether it would even occur to anybody to do anything to help get people home.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority announced at about 2am that Thomas Cook Group has ceased trading with immediate effect, with all flights and holidays cancelled.

Peter Fankhauser, the chief executive of Thomas Cook, said the tour operator’s
collapse was a “matter of profound regret” as he apologised to the company’s
“millions of customers, and thousands of employees”.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said the government had asked it to launch a repatriation programme over the next two weeks, starting on Monday and running to Sunday 6 October, to bring Thomas Cook customers back to the UK.

Dozens of charter planes have been brought in from as far afield as Malaysia to assist with the mass airlift.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps said all customers currently abroad with Thomas Cook who are booked to return to the UK over the next two weeks will be brought home as close as possible to their booked return date, in “the biggest peacetime repatriation in UK history” and asked for patience from travellers as the returns were sorted out.