A DREAM holiday turned into a nightmare for a Radcliffe family whose four-hour journey home took two days.

Now the Moore family, of Lowton Street, have vowed never to fly again and are seeking compensation for their ordeal.

Stephen Moore, his wife, Michelle, and their children Ryan (9) and Laura (13) had enjoyed a fortnight's holiday on the Canary Island of Fuerteventura.

"It was a lovely holiday but it's been ruined. You don't remember the holiday, you just remember the hell of trying to get home," said Michelle (35).

Their MyTravel DC-10 was supposed to take off from Fuerteventura Airport at 9pm on Saturday, but flight MYT112 did not leave the runway until 4.30pm on Monday.

Problems began when cabin crew had difficulties closing the plane's back door. Then the captain aborted the take-off half-way down the runway due to a lack of power in one of the engines.

"I was terrified and I screamed and cried," said Michelle. "My husband said he'd never seen such fear in my eyes."

While tests were carried out on the engine, the 363 passengers had to remain on board, even though the air conditioning had failed and temperatures reached 100 degrees.

Passengers were eventually taken off the plane while engineers tried to carry out repairs. But when it emerged there was a major failure, a replacement plane had to be flown out from Spain.

Michelle said: "We were luckier than some of the others who had to sleep on the floor at the airport. Because we had the children, they put us up in a hotel but none of the staff spoke English so we couldn't get any food or drink and the room only had two single beds so me and my husband ended up sleeping on chairs."

When a replacement plane was found on Sunday, Michelle said she did not board it with relief.

"After what we had been through on the runway, I was scared stiff. My husband considered coming back by boat. He said that from now on, we are going to have our holidays in England."

When they arrived in Manchester at 8pm on Monday, each passenger was given £100 and a written apology.

"We are determined to take it further. Apart from all the stress and upset we suffered, we also had to miss two days of work," said Michelle, who works at Radcliffe Asda. "I'll never fly again: it's put me off for life."

A spokesman for MyTravel said: "We would like to take this opportunity to apologise to any customer who has experienced delays. We understand that these delays can cause frustration but the health and safety of our passengers is of paramount concern to us, and we will not operate aircraft against the stringent Civil Aviation Authority guidelines."