Passengers tell of ‘chaos’ and delays to get home
BBCThousands of passengers were trapped in travel plans after Heathrow Airport closed Friday.
Houses near the airport were evacuated and some schools closed after a fire at an electrical substation in Hayes, West London, causing power outages.
Heathrow said the interference could last for several days as it warns passengers not to go to the airport “before reopening” under any circumstances.
Passengers who have already flown in the air told the BBC that they were transferred to other airports or turned back to where they left the damage.
“We are returning to India”
Emily Adler is flying from India to India after the holidays.
She said the captain woke up midway through the plane and said “we are back to Delhi”.
Speaking at the main airport in Delhi, she said she and her companion passengers were in a holding area.
“We were just told to wait for our bags and we didn’t know what was going to happen next…it was just starting to get messy.”
“When you sleep…’
Steve was a businessman, and when the 14-hour flight from Singapore to London was in a 14-hour flight when the speaker system was gradually disappearing.
He said: “The captain said ‘You have some developments when you sleep.’
The captain told passengers that their destination – Heathrow Airport – was closed, saying they were moving to France.
Steve found himself searching for the scene of Eurostar in Paris on Friday morning to get the channel back to the train, while his companion passengers plan on an eight-hour coach ride.
He wasn’t the only flight to be forced to change courses. Midway through the flight from Jamaica to London, Sandeep Singh Mahay’s plane began to regress.
“The captain told us that neither the UK, Europe or the US airport would allow us to land, so we turned back.”
Sandeep said she has been trapped at Sanster International Airport in Montego Bay for hours, with no updates and no accommodation available.
“They told us they couldn’t organize their accommodation and most places were booked.”
“Sit on the cold hard floor for a few hours”
Meanwhile, Danielle, from Shropshire, in New York, said she and her parents were knocked down at Kennedy Airport after cancelling British Airways (BA) flights.
She said passengers boarded the plane Thursday but then waited on the tarmac.
One hour passed with little explanation, then a few more. “We waited on the boat for four hours to inform the flight was cancelled,” she said.
She called on Friday morning from the cold, hard floor of the dock where they camped for hours.
“No new flights were found, no accommodation was provided, and even bookings were available.”
Among her companions, she said, were “old and young kids who sat on the hard floor for hours.”
“We’ve got $9 (£6.95) of food vouchers, which will be fun when a bottle of evian Water here costs $6 (£4.64)” she said.
A BA spokesman said it must cancel all short-haul flights in and out of the airport on Friday and is reviewing its long-haul plan “and the impact on our schedule tomorrow and beyond.”
“We will update customers as soon as possible and we continue to ask them not to head to Heathrow Airport but to check the latest flight information on BA.com.”
The airline said it will contact affected passengers, including the option of rebooking the flight or getting a full refund.
Danielle thinks she is lucky. She and her parents went home from the holidays on their way home to the West Midlands and moved back to recover on the weekend.
“I was with a nurse and there was a change on Saturday and now she missed her salary,” she said.
“There is another lady who misses her daughter’s birthday party.”
For Liz, it was her son’s graduation.
Leeds booked a flight after she was cancelled on the train for the Scottish viewing ceremony. But this was cancelled.
“What’s worse has happened, I’m watching my son’s graduation ceremony online now,” she told the BBC since 03:45 GMT.
“Tired, depressed, angry”
As the impact of the closure ripples around the world, some stranded passengers worry that going home will take more than just a weekend.
In Terminal 4 of Kennedy International Airport, British soldier William Hastings, 31, camping, has experienced similar ordeals as other airline Delta.
Over the past six months, he and two of his colleagues have left their home due to military attachment in the United States. They finally set out from Virginia on a long journey home Thursday.
William saw the tweet from Heathrow Airport when he was making a transfer at JFK, saying it was closed. But it was confirmed by Delta only after at least an hour.
When the cancellation was finally announced to Heathrow’s combined two flights, he said it was chaos.
“Suddenly, you have 500 people storming in (the booking station) to these three delta agents trying to rebook the flight,” he said.
“People are told all kinds of things.”
Several passengers from different airports around the world have shown that they are disappointed with how the airlines respond to the disruption.
“They just put some water, a few packets of chips, that’s it,” Hastings said.
“Tired. Depressed. Angry.” He summed it up. It was 04:00 local time when talking to the BBC in New York. He had been up for 18 hours by then.
He said he and two of his colleagues lined up for four hours to secure the final replacement flight and a hotel organized by the airline – 30 miles from the airport.
He said their return flight did not return until Sunday afternoon and they had to pass through Germany to return to the UK.
“My colleagues and I are going to Munich now, but not for two days…it depends on whether Heathrow Airport is even operating.”
A Delta spokesman said it has suspended operations to “provid more flexibility for customers to rebook their trips”.
Has your flight been cancelled, transferred or delayed due to Heathrow’s interruption? If so, you can Your voice, your BBC news.
