'I don't think there was one person here who knew what was going on'

Leigh Wallace, 25, was due to get married in her home country of South Africa today.

But after waiting hours for a flight to Johannesburg she was forced to stuff her wedding dress into a small suitcase which could be taken on as hand luggage and beg a taxi driver to take the remainder of her belongings and bags back to her flat in Kingston.

She was one of dozens of angry South Africans who vented their fury at BAA and BA staff. She said: "It was terrible, we had no help and no one seemed to care. Everyone was left to their own devices, things were really chaotic.

"I was told my flight was leaving, then I was told it wasn't. Then I was told I could take my bags and that changed and we were told we could only take hand luggage.

"I had to beg a driver outside the terminal to take my things back to Kingston. I don't know if there was anybody there to take them, perhaps they were dumped on my doorstep, who knows?

"I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I make it to the wedding, I will be devastated if I don't."

American businessman Jeff Whitney was left waiting for 10 hours trying to get to Romania. He was finally told he would not be able to take his suitcase on board and was forced to leave to try to find a nearby hotel. He said: "This was one of the worst days in history. I have been flying for 35 years, mostly with BA. I lived in London for six years and thought it was once the best airline in the world, yesterday was nothing like BA. It took 10 hours to get my bags from a connecting flight to T5, then they asked me if I wanted to leave my luggage and get on a flight without it. I didn't think I could trust them with it, somehow."

Mr Whitney, 51, was also scathing about the lack of communication with staff. He said: "It would have been nice to speak to someone who knew what was going on, but quite honestly I don't think there was one person in the whole building who knew what was. I, like many others, was forced to spend a night in a hotel at my own expense."

Lizzelle Ehrke was reduced to tears after being told that she could only board a flight back to South Africa without her suitcases. The 53-year-old was at the end of her first visit to Britain but was not in a hurry to return.

She said: "I was quite excited about coming to T5. I'd seen the Queen opening it on television and I'd read about how beautiful the building's design was. They made such a fuss about how smoothly things would run. I had to find a hotel on my own and I couldn't get anyone to talk to me.

"People were walking around with clipboards and radios but they didn't want to talk to anybody. I feel like never coming back to this country again.

"The airports in South Africa are far superior... there they would have called in the army to sort things out or done something to help people. We were just stranded."