British Airways computer systems have crashed across the world ahead of the busy Bank holiday weekend, sparking mayhem at airports.
All BA flights from Heathrow and Gatwick have been cancelled for the rest of the day because of a ‘major IT system failure’ that is causing ‘severe disruption worldwide’.
The airline had said earlier in the day that flights would be running after 6pm – meaning passengers turning up for their evening journeys now face a mad scramble to book overnight hotel stays or organise transport back home.
Parts of BA’s website and app are not working and customers at Heathrow have been told it will take three hours to leave the airport – and they will not be able to get their bags today as the baggage system has broken down.
Several passengers reported that the captain and gate staff at Gatwick Airport said the airline could be under a cyber attack.
The airline said it was ‘experiencing a global system outage’ and told passengers not to travel to London airports on Saturday due to ‘extreme congestion’.
Parts of the BA website are not working and passengers are met with an ‘error’ page when they try to check in online. The app has also been affected
Emily Wilson, an Australian student living in London, who arrived at Heathrow at 11.30am to catch a 13.25pm flight to Stockholm, said passengers cannot get their baggage.
She told MailOnline: ‘They have told us it will take three hours to get out of the airport, and that we won’t be able to get bags today. Their baggage system has broken down and the airline can’t retrieve them.
Passengers who need hotel accommodation were told to use a ‘Pay and Claim’ letter to claim back ‘reasonable expenses’, the airline said in a letter.
BA added that they were ‘unable to predict’ when the computer systems would be ‘fully operational’ and asked customers to leave the airport.
‘There are children crying everywhere and so many crowds. It is really frustrating having been here all day,’ Emily added.
‘It’s crazy for this to happen on bank holiday weekend. Our flights are not being rescheduled- we have to re-book online if we want new flights.
‘We have received so many mixed messages. At first we heard anyone who had not checked in could not fly. Then we were sent through, and once arriving in the lounge we were told there could be a possible delay.
‘Then news came out about all flights being cancelled but the staff had not heard about it. The manager came up eventually to announce official cancellation and said that we should leave and collect our bags.’
‘Afterwards they started boarding some flights so everyone is very confused,’ she added.’
She added that boards in Terminal 5 said that flights will be delayed until a certain time – although staff refuted this and said ‘everything is cancelled’.
‘There are people everywhere and we have been told to line up if we want to exit, and then we will have to clear customs before picking up bags.’
Furious fliers vented on social media that they have been stuck on their plane for more than two hours.
A spokeswoman for the airline said: ‘We have experienced a major IT system failure that is causing very severe disruption to our flight operations worldwide. We’ve found no evidence that it’s a cyber attack.’
Travellers have been told to check the airline website and Twitter account for updates about the situation.
Several passengers said staff told them the delays were due to a hack – which BA denies.
‘Gate agent at gate A10b just called it a cyber attack…true?’ Bryan Henson said, while Michele Andjel added: ”It appears it is a cyber attack’ said @British_Airways captain @Gatwick_Airport.’
‘Stuck in Gatwick departures. BA have just announced that it could be a cyber attack that has taken down their systems,’ another flier wrote on Twitter.
Heathrow Airport said it was ‘working closely’ with BA to solve the issue.
‘The terminals at Heathrow and Gatwick have become extremely congested and we have cancelled all flights from Heathrow and Gatwick before 6pm UK time today, so please do not come to the airports,’ the airline said.
‘We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience this is causing our customers and we are working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.’ They advised passengers to check the status of their flight before travelling to the airport.
Delays have also been reported in Rome, Prague, Cagliari in Italy, Stockholm and Malaga due to the technical failure and Gatwick Airport.
Several passengers at Heathrow said they had not been informed their flights had been cancelled until more than an hour after the airline put out a press statement announcing the decision.
Images posted to social media showed a group of people gathered around the customer services desk at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 trying to get information.
Shortly after the statement was released, Terry Page, 28, from London, said: ‘There’s no such announcement here. The boards are showing ‘Go to gate’ and no mention of cancellations.’
More than an hour later, he said cancellations of individual flights were still being announced.
‘They’ve announced them 30 minutes apart – I think to prevent panic and mass exit,’ he suggested.
Mr Page, who was booked on a BA flight to Texas, was stuck in a queue in Terminal 5 for two hours.
He said: ‘I tried to use their website to get a screenshot of my boarding pass – but the website isn’t working either.’
‘(We) had to rely on the whisperings I could hear from staff talking,’ he said.
One traveller said that it was ‘carnage’ at Heathrow Airport and warned others to stay away
Mr Page went on: ‘We’ve tried all of the self check-in machines; none were working, apart from one. There was a huge queue for it and it later transpired that it didn’t actually work, but you didn’t discover that until you got to the front.’
‘Then we queued for about an hour and a half with lots of people pushing in front to catch earlier flights.’
One video posted by a traveller shows the captain of flight BA553 from Rome to London addressing passengers about IT problems.
He told the disgruntled crowds: ‘There’s just no way for anyone to depart a plane from anywhere in the world.
‘Those people who have been on a plane already are stuck on a plane and those people who have landed at Heahtrow are unable to get off because they can’t park.
‘So to be honest this is the place for you at this time.’
One passenger said: ‘Systems down. Huge queues at check in. No explanation. Not good #britishairways #heathrowterminal.’
Passengers were also hit by severe delays in September and July last year because of IT glitches.
BA flights were also delayed on boards at Tegel Airport in Berlin
Another added: ‘Hey @British_Airways, couldn’t log in to the app with my boarding pass on because systems were down and I missed my flight. What can I do?’
Nadia Whittley, added: ‘British airways computers down T5 and standstill, stranded on the plane and they make us pay for food!! Please retweet this indicency! (SIC)’
Julie Adie wrote: ‘We are on the runway.. For hour now..no offer of drinks..and because ba only takes cards now, we only have cash…wat we supposed to do!? (sic)’
Mr Tail, a 27-year-old teacher from London, claimed he had missed his flight to Rome because of the technical problems.
‘I checked in online using the BA app at 8.15 for my flight at 9.25, then went and had breakfast,’ he said.
‘At some point the app restarted and when I went to go through security I couldn’t log in to my booking to get my QR code.’
‘I’ve tried to call customer services but their systems are still down so they weren’t able to help me, and they told me it was a worldwide issue,’ he added.
Gareth Wharton, at Heathrow Terminal 5, tweeted a picture of BA staff writing gate information on a whiteboard amid the systems outage.
‘Gets worse, T5 staff having to put gate info up on a white board,’ he tweeted.
Melissa Davis, who runs MD Communications, a legal PR agency in London, was held for more than an hour and a half on the tarmac at Heathrow, on board a BA flight returning from Belfast.
Speaking from the plane, Miss Davis said the air conditioning had been off ‘so I don’t think we will be going anywhere any time soon’, but added that the passengers had been kept informed by their pilot and given water while they remained seated.
Fliers stuck in the US, Rome, Belfast, Lisbon and from Heathrow Airport vented that they were had been waiting on their planes for more than two hours
Earlier this month a 23-year-old appeared in court accused of costing BA £100,000 by taking its website offline for an hour.
Paul Dixon, of County Durham, was arrested after a cyber crime investigation led by the North East Regional Special Operations Unit in October 2014.
Dixon appeared before South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court charged with five counts of carrying out unauthorised acts to impair the operation or access to a computer.
It comes as thousands of families had to fly off for half term without their luggage after Gatwick’s baggage sorting system broke down – holding up 3,000 bags.
Their Bank Holiday weekend got off to a nightmare start as travellers encountered chaotic scenes and huge queues at Britain’s second biggest airport.
The conveyor belt system that sorts bags before they arrive at the aircraft stopped working at around 5am yesterday, and was not fixed until around 9.15am.
Airline staff were forced to manually check each bag and put them on the right flight.Dozens of planes took off without all passengers’ luggage on board.
