More flight chaos as computers crash on day T5 was finally meant to work perfectly

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British Airways cancelled 24 flights when a computer system crashed on the day it had hoped to run a 100 per cent service for the first time since it opened a week last Thursday.

The latest blow – a breakdown of computers which match passengers and their bags before flights – came after nine days of humiliating problems affecting tens of thousands of BA passengers, including supermodel Naomi Campbell, arrested for allegedly spitting at a policeman when one of her bags went missing.

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Heathrow: There was yet more chaos for troubled Terminal 5 today when the computers failed to work

BA could barely contain its anger at airport operator BAA last night. Until now, the airline has insisted it will not play the 'blame game' over the disastrous T5 opening.

But last night the gloves came off as BA sources said it was "very disappointed" at the latest problem, and an official spokeswoman declared: "We are urging BAA to resolve these issues as soon as possible."

The computer software failure, which affected more than 1,000 passengers, led to the cancellation of 12 flights in and 12 out. Others were delayed by up to three hours.

It was a baptism of fire for Colin Matthews, a former BA executive who has just taken over as BAA's new boss. He had hoped the previous week's chaos would be over and that this weekend would be hailed as a success.

Indeed, BAA officials indicated privately during the week that the baggage problems would be 'sorted' by yesterday.

But last night BAA was forced to take the blame for the first time in a series of disasters which at one stage created a mountain of 28,000 missing bags and led to many being flown to America and Milan for sorting.

A BAA spokeswoman admitted: "A software problem has arisen in the baggage system at Terminal 5. This is entirely BAA's responsibility.

"We apologise to BA and all passengers who have been affected. Our staff are working hard to resolve the problem and keep disruption to BA's operation to a minimum."

BA said the terminal was running "very well" on Friday, and there had been no fall-off in bookings as a result of the problems, which are expected to cost the airline about £16million in compensation.