British Airways' flights slowly resume after computer meltdown
British Airways is recovering from a major computer meltdown this weekend that forced the airline to ground its fleet in London. The airline says hundreds of cancellations and delays were caused by a power supply problem.
British Airways' flights slowly resumed Sunday afternoon, but not without a weekend of ground turbulence for its passengers in London.
The airlines' global IT systems failure grounded hundreds of flights, causing a traffic nightmare on the tarmac. Lines of stranded passengers stretched from one end of the terminal to the next inside both Heathrow - Europe's busiest airport - and Gatwick.
"We've been in line for like 5 hours," said one frustrated passenger. "We have no idea how long we'll be in line -- the rest of the day, I'm sure. And we probably won't fly out today either."
The computer glitch quickly disrupted the airlines' website, airline check-in, contact centers and baggage tracing. Many passengers were left with no choice but to leave their bags behind and sleep in the airport not long after both incoming and outgoing flights had been canceled.
"Things can happen, but the problem is that the staff was not at all informed, would not come talk to us, explain to us," said another passenger. "So we had to go find some people with uniforms and ask some things, and they had barely any idea what to tell you or were very embarrassed about it."
The airlines' CEO, Alex Cruz, posted an apology on Twitter. "I know this has been a horrible time and I want to apologize for the fact that you had to go through these very trying experiences," he said."
Cruz says there is no evidence of a cyberattack. Passengers now have the option to rebook their flights, or receive a full refund.
