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A long night at the terminal
Benedict Moore-Bridger, Evening Standard26.09.08
Air passengers were forced to sleep overnight in terminal buildings after a computer breakdown at the main air traffic control centre grounded nearly 100 flights.
A fault with the system at Swanwick in Hampshire caused problems at airports across Britain, with Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton the worst hit.
The glitch, which effectively closed the airspace over London and southern England, led to massive disruption as passengers scrambled to rebook flights or last-minute accommodation.
Engineers fixed the problem by 7pm yesterday but delays were still expected today as thousands fought to get seats on rescheduled or half-empty flights.
At Heathrow 35 flights were grounded, mainly affecting British Airways, Swiss and Lufthansa services. EasyJet cancelled 53 flights at Gatwick and Luton, with other services grounded at Stansted and London City airports.
The chaos began just before 4pm yesterday, leaving passengers in Heathrow's new Terminal 5 queuing for hours. Richard Minnis, 26, an IT consultant from London, missed his 7.10pm flight to Cape Town.
"It has been a shambles," he said. "I missed my flight because the queue was so long to check in. I am stuck trying to find another one. When the problem started airport staff seemed to disappear."
Another passenger said she and her boyfriend would sleep in the airport terminal-after being stranded at the end of a day trip to London from Munich.
The 20-year-old cabin crew member said their 8.10pm flight back to Munich had been cancelled.
She said: "It was supposed to be a fun day out but now we will probably have to sleep here. Because I have stand-by tickets I am bottom of the list - they just said try tomorrow."
Customers were handed bottles of water as they tried to rearrange flights.
There was also flight misery at Luton airport. Phillip Poynton, 22, and his girlfriend Julia Schulte, 20, were due to fly by easyJet to Dortmund on a 7.20pm flight to attend two weddings.
Mr Poynton said: "We got here two hours early and straight away we could tell things weren't right. The next thing we knew, check-in had been suspended. We were told to go home and rebook."
An investigation is under way into what caused the glitch. A National Air Traffic Services spokesman said the fault had meant restrictions were imposed on aircraft entering UK airspace at heights of more than 24,000 feet.
A BAspokesman said: "We have cancelled a number of short-haul flights but we have been operating a full longhaul service, albeit with some delays."
