How short-haul Flight BA431 became a very long haul

It is meant to be one of British Airways’ quickest short-haul journeys. With a favourable tailwind the flight from Schiphol airport, Amsterdam, to Heathrow should take little more than 45 minutes. With unfavourable Terminal 5 conditions, Flight 431 was delayed, then grounded and when it finally arrived several hours late it did not have a parking place.

Many passengers were furious at missing their connecting flights, others cancelled business appointments around the world and some were just plain fed up.

The A320 was due to take off at 10.45am. As passengers assembled at the departure gate, it was moved to another, put back 30 minutes, then another half hour.

When the gate finally opened, a collective sigh greeted the BA steward, who announced sheepishly that the flight had been grounded until a landing slot at Heathrow could be found. For Jackie Cuthbert, a recruitment director for a chemical company, the delay was simply too much.

“Right, I will have to speak to someone,” she said, gathering up her £3,500 business class ticket to Newark in the United States.“As a back-up plan I am now trying to get a flight on KLM.” Before abandoning BA431, the 41-year-old businesswoman, originally from London but now living in Amsterdam, said her faith in BA had been dented: “It’s just too risky.”

Those who took the gamble on the flight were amused by Captain Nigel Rhind’s refreshingly honest account of the problems.

“There’s no easy way to say this,” he said over the aircraft’s public address. “It’s certainly been a fairly fraught few days. Due to congestion at Heathrow we’ve now a departure slot for 1.30pm. There’s no place to actually land at T5. I’ve been flying around Europe for 20 years. Normally we would get a slot that is earlier. But because of the last few days, I’m just not so sure.”

His pessimism was unfounded. The plane took off a few minutes shy of 1pm. The aircraft touched down after a brief spell circling above Hounslow while a landing strip was found.

Captain Rhind left the engines idling as he blamed “baggage belt confusion” for the failure to get a parking space. Outside, baggage staff could be seen sleeping in and on the vans.

At 2.25pm, nearly three hours late, the plane taxied to a parking bay and the relieved passengers disembarked.

Penny and Damien Campbell held their two children’s hands as they walked past the lengthy queues for those who had missed their connecting flights.

“We are one of the lucky ones. We will make our connection to Newark,” Mrs Campbell said. “But, with two children, this has had to be a military operation. We have to collect our suit-cases and drag them to Terminal 4. Normally this would be done for us.”

As Zoe, 2, and Alexandra, 4, yawned, Mrs Campbell, a television producer from Brisbane, said: “They shouldn’t have opened the terminal. It’s been a disaster.”

Her husband, an accountant, looked surprised as his cases arrived after a few minutes at the baggage carousel. “State of the art,” he joked.

BA will cancel more than 100 flights over the next two days and many more over the coming week as it continues to struggle with the baggage system at Terminal 5 (Ben Webster writes).

There were 37 cancellations yesterday and 67 on Saturday. At least 54 flights will be cancelled today and 50 tomorrow. More than 15,000 bags are being stored.

The CAA may prosecute BA for misleading passengers about compensation.

The Times revealed on Saturday that BA had given passengers a letter saying that they could claim a maximum of £100 for a room. The CAA said it had asked for an explanation of what appeared to be a breach of European rules.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 649303.ece