“Absolute chaos.” Up to 10,000 people did not manage to fly from London
Relaxing to the plane is a stressful situation, but this time it did not happen by distracted passengers. A huge failure of IT systems led to chaos in London, which lasted several hours.
Passengers who arrived at London-Stansted Airport on Sunday morning were not expected to do such a departure on May holidays. The failure of the IT system led to huge queues and difficulties for passengers – there were problems with check -in and granting luggage. Although at 10:30 local time the defect was repaired, the delays accumulated for some time. According to estimates, up to 10,000 people could be late for the plane.
The carriers adopted various strategies – JET2 and charter TUI delayed the outlets by three to four hours to wait for the passengers to pass the security control. Ryanair sent planes on time to avoid delays later in the day.
IT system failure at the airport in Stansted
34-year-old Mark Wright told “The Independent” that vacationers pushed to get on board the Jet2 aircraft flying at 5:55 on Majorca. “We came to the airport at 3am in absolute chaos. We could barely squeeze through the main entrance,” he reported.
“There were no organized queues, there was only one barrier with three airport employees who shouted flights and letting individuals pass,” he explained.
“I had to push forward to find out if our flight was canceled, and then break through the crowds to find my partner with luggage and push again to get to the point of granting jet2 luggage,” he said. He added that moving around the terminal was difficult because other people sat on the floor or burn.
“Absolute chaos”
“Absolute chaos, nobody told us where to go, the queue for many hours, finally I reached the goal just to see the plane with open doors, but they refused to let anyone in any other. The plane was almost empty. An absolute joke,” one of the passengers, Leon, wrote on Facebook.
On Monday, planes fly as planned. London-Stansted Airport recommends that you always appear on it 3 hours before departure, regardless of the failure.
