We told T5 bosses the system was a farce... they ignored us

Sue Knight and her son Wesley, from Ickenham, joined hundreds of "guinea pigs" to try out arrivals, departures and transfers before it opened to the public.

She described the trial, which was organised by airport operator BAA and British Airways, as a farce and said it led her to change her own holiday flights to depart from Luton - despite Heathrow being 20 minutes from her home.

Mrs Knight, 57, a deputy headteacher, said: "As it turns out, it was a pointless exercise because BA ignored the suggestions we made. We flagged up every flaw but they were pigheaded and as a result were left with egg on their faces."

Mrs Knight and Wesley, 28, attended the unpaid trial two weeks before the 27 March launch. They were issued with identities, tickets and a brief of their task. Their mission was to test departures to a long-haul destination, arrivals from Europe and transfers from a flight from Manchester to a plane to America.

"It was a disaster," said Mrs Knight. "We were left waiting over an hour for a transfer bus. It should run every five minutes. There were no seats and elderly people-were getting tired. Everyone lost their luggage or got someone else's bags back. It was funny at the time."

Participants filled in feedback forms but Mrs Knight said: "I don't think anyone bothered to read those forms."

A BAA spokeswoman said: "The trials were designed to stress-test the building to expose issues and problems. It was not expected that everything would work perfectly. Many of the problems have been the result of the baggage process."

'HUMILIATED BY THE INCOMPETENT STAFF'

AVIATION bosses were today branded "incompetent" after a disabled passenger suffered a humiliating ordeal at Terminal 5 after his flight was delayed for five hours.

Stefan King was flying back from his friend's wedding in Aberdeen when his delayed BA flight landed at the £4.3 billion terminal at 2am on Monday.

But he was forced to wait more than an hour longer than his co-passengers after staff at the terminal struggled to find a wheelchair to take him off the plane because the flight had arrived "after midnight".

Instead, his father had to carry the 27-year-old to the door of the plane.

Once inside, lifts taking passengers to the arrivals area were not working. Stefan was eventually led through a restricted area into a goods lift, before being directed to international arrivals.

But his humiliation continued as immigration officials demanded to see their passports - which they did not have because their flight was internal.

Stefan, from Ealing, said: "It was utter incompetence. I was disgusted."

A Heathrow spokesman apologised for the incident and said they were carrying out "a full investigation".