Passengers on a plane diverted to Manchester from New York were left stranded onboard without food and water for seven hours to avoid the pilot exceeding his maximum work hours, The Telegraph said on its website.
The 460 people aboard the Air France flight to Paris landed at Manchester at 11.30am on Saturday, but were not allowed off until around 6pm.
The diversion was doubly frustrating for British passengers, who were initially told they would have to continue to Paris and then fly back to the UK - including one woman who lives just a couple of miles from Manchester Airport.
The flight had been delayed from taking off by around four hours at New York while queueing to be de-iced.
It meant the plane's pilot would have exceeded his flying time before getting to Paris, so the flight diverted to Manchester instead.
The pilot had worked for almost 13 hours, more than the 11 allowed under European Union regulations, and the flight from Manchester to Paris takes around 90 minutes.
Air France had originally told passengers it would send a new crew to fly the plane onto its destination.
However, while pre-flight checks were being carried out a technical fault was then discovered in the cabin.