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3,000 bags grounded by Heathrow chaos
Rashid Razaq15 Aug 2008
Heathrow officials were today trying to reunite about 3,000 bags with their owners after a computer glitch caused travel chaos.
The problem affected the baggage and check-in system at the airport's Terminal 3 and led to delays and cancellations last night.
Heathrow operator BAA said today two flights had been cancelled, while several were delayed and about 3,000 bags had missed their flights.
At one point, up to 6,000 passengers were prevented from entering the terminal building.
Departure and arrival screens reportedly went blank and all checkin desks were suspended.
A BAA spokesman said today: "We are working with the airlines this morning to rectify this problem. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to passengers last night." The company also advised passengers to contact their airlines before travelling to the airport.
T3 is primarily a terminal for long-haul flights for carriers such as Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines-United, Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines.
The baggage chaos comes ahead of a Competition Commission report due next week into BAA's ownership of Heathrow and six other UK airports.
In an "emerging thinking" report in April, the commission said the Spanish-run company's ownership of so many UK airports "may not be serving well the interests of either airlines or passengers". It also raised concerns over BAA's investment levels, service quality and planning. There are claims the final report could call for a break-up of the "monopoly".
Reader views (6)
I took a week's holiday in June and stayed at home in Central London. It was the best, most relaxed holiday I have taken in years. No queues for check in, no intrusive security, no lost bags - just world-class museums, galleries and restaurants.
- Warren Alexander, London, UK, 18/08/2008 09:08
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I lodged a property irregularity report after our luggage failed to show up at JFK. Almost 3 days and countless phone calls to the Virgin Lost Luggage call centre in India and no one can tell me anything. BUT, Virgin has generously authorized their Indian Call Centre staff to allow us to spend up to a maximum of USD50. Wow - maybe we can get some fries with our 2 Big Mac meals.
Ridiculous.
Its heartening to know that Virgin also treats its Upper Class passengers the same as its coach class customers and we all get this generous USD50 allowance. Wow - speechless. Thanks Sir Richard - you go further than O'Leary and Ryanair for service. And to call it customer relations is just a joke.
I have actually stopped calling the 1-800 number for the call centre in India.
Emails are responded to with call this 1-800 number (see above).
The local number for Virgin's lost luggage at JFK is a recording with call this 1-800 number (see above).
- Peter, Vs0003 Lhr To Jfk, KL, Malaysia, 18/08/2008 02:44
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I don't know about Heathrow, but the airport 'experience' is generally horrible. The continued excessive use of security (the main cause of delays) can only be softening us up for 3am searches of our homes and body searches at our local supermarkets. The age of air travel has peaked, unless they make it more user friendly.
- Bondy, Spain, 16/08/2008 18:18
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It's about time the executives at BAA awarded themselves another bonus.
- Jeremiah, London, 15/08/2008 18:09
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There was no attempt by BAA staff to assist or inform the huge crowd. There was no attempt at organising a back-up. I felt sorry for the airline staff who were doingt their best to find their passengers but they were obviously hampered by the massive crowd and misinformation by 'other' staff.
BAA had also allowed massive crowding around the doors so even when you were allowed to enter T3 it was a nightmare.
Surely they have contingency plans for all sorts of problems, why not for catastrophic computer failure?
Especially in the light of T5. It just seemed like BAA were just going to hide in the building and ignore everybody.
Surely they have troubleshooters for sorting things like this out?
- John Sandys, Truro, Cornwall, 15/08/2008 14:44
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I arrived at T3 at 5.45pm to put my wife and daughter on a plane (due to fly at 8.25pm) to find chaos. The building was shut off to the public without any notices explaining anything.
A screen indicated Zone C for the flight so we joined a queue that must have had 300 people in it. People in front said they had moved forwards 10 paces in just over an hour. Not a good symptom.
I asked a yellow coated official looking guy who said don't worry nothing was taking off as the whole system was down.
As we waited I saw a few Airline personnel walking round with particular flight numbers. One told me that their planes were attempting to fly so I wrestled my way to the front of the queue literally climbing over suitcases and trollies and found 1 friendly but very pressurised rep from Gulf-Air. She said my wife's flight was going and get them at the front... another major wrestle!. In the meantime the rep took their tickets and passports and inside and did the check-in, not even looking at the bags yet (we needn't have worried so much about baggage weight at home).
Once inside their bags were added to a huge pile that I understood that Gulf-Air's own staff were going to take to the plane and had to rush up to Security. By now it was after 7pm and boarding had started so no proper good-byes, just shoved them through passport control.
I also returned to the crowd and helped a girl heading for Hong-Kong, connect with a Cathay Pacific rep otherwiser she would also have missed flight.
- John Sandys, Truro, Cornwall, 15/08/2008 14:37
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