Passengers reportedly stripped their tops after being trapped onboard for nearly two hours during a delay in the sweltering heat.

Eva Gregory, 16, among travellers kept waiting onboard Ryanair flight 7268 from Malta to Birmingham.

The teenager was travelling with her mother Angela and brother Samuel when she became nauseous as the flight’s 5.40pm departure time was pushed back to 7.30pm on Monday.

Travellers already reported having been crammed onto an apron bus without air conditioning to get to the aircraft parked on a remote stand.

According to Eva, the planeload of passengers was kept waiting on the bus for 30 minutes before being transferred to another vehicle.

Once they finally boarded the aircraft, there was still no respite from the searing 31C heat, as travellers began to feel sick and even took off their tops in a desperate bid to cool down.

‘We got on the plane but were sitting and waiting in the heat with no air conditioning at all for over an hour’, Eva recalled.

‘All the passengers were extremely agitated and quite quickly became frustrated.

‘People were taking their tops off because of the heat.’

Cabin crew did not offer passengers free water even as some passengers reportedly passed out on the plane.

Eva added: ‘Two people passed out, although I’m not sure how many were throwing up.

‘I was experiencing the feeling of needing to throw up, but as I have a phobia of being sick, it gave me a panic attack.

‘The elderly people seemed extremely distressed and could potentially have experienced worse medical problems.’

She said that while flight attendants had attempted to tell ground personnel not to continue to board passengers while the air conditioning wasn’t working, their requests went ignored.

Ryanair said the flight had been initially delayed due to a technical problem on the aircraft and was further set back after a passenger became ill onboard.

It added that passengers were held on an air conditioned bus for 10 minutes and that cabin crew had opened the onboard bars for people to purchase drinks on the ground.

A spokesperson for the Irish airline said: ‘This flight from Malta to Birmingham (10 Aug) was delayed prior to departure due to a minor technical issue with the aircraft and subsequently became delayed after a passenger became ill onboard.

‘Following an inspection of the aircraft by engineers, the aircraft was cleared to operate, and this flight departed Malta at 19:00pm local.’

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