More than 180 holidaymakers on the Comtel Air jet travelling from Armistar in India to Birmingham International Airport were "held to ransom" for six hours in Vienna.
Passengers were left stunned when their jet landed to refuel in Austria and staff told them to disembark — because the airline had "ran out of cash to fund the last leg of the trip".
It emerged the airline had racked up bills of more than £20,000 for not paying landing fees and taxes — with the company in dire financial straits.
A six-hour stand off on the tarmac only ended when travellers were frogmarched to a cash machine and forced to withdraw up to £130 each to get the plane home.
Some were forced to borrow from relatives - while others rustled up any euros they could spare to add to the pot.
The Comtel Air jet finally arrived at Birmingham Airport this morning.
Dalvinder Batra, 34, whose 80-year-old blind relative was forced to go without medicine during the ordeal, blasted: "It is absolutely disgusting how they treated us.
"There are still people stuck out there. We have been told that the company has gone bust mid-flight."
Rnanbir Dehal, from Wolverhampton, said: "We were escorted to the cash point to take out money.
"They said there was a deficit of nearly £20,000 and they gave us receipts.
16/11/11 Andrew Parker/The Sun
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