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BA outage left pilots ‘in the dark’ and passengers shivering on tarmac

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BA outage left pilots ‘in the dark’ and passengers shivering on tarmac

British Airways has been taken offline because of a major IT glitch (Picture: Getty Images)

British Airways was affected by an IT outage last night, stranding passengers and prompting huge queues on the tarmac at multiple airports.

Phone lines for the airline giant were reportedly having issues, along with the BA website, which went down shortly after 6pm Monday evening, according to Downdetector.

Even pilots were left without information as to when they could take off with their passengers.

Planes full of people were trapped onboard at Heathrow Airport, waiting for clearance to take off.

The issue was attributed to an IT glitch, which impacted much of the company’s software, leaving pilots to manually call Heathrow Airport to file flight plans.

A picture showing passengers queueing up on the tarmac in Verona after British Airways IT glitch.
One BA passenger said they have been forced to wait on the tarmac at Verona airport (Picture: X/Sockmonkey1971)

British Airways confirmed they had experienced a ‘technical issue affecting some of our systems.’

The BA website was unable to load, with a welcome text saying earlier ‘We are experiencing high demand on ba.com at the moment. Thank you for your patience.’

The website appears to have since been restored.

Frustrated passengers took to social media to vent their anger after the glitch.

One BA passenger in Italy claimed an entire plane full of people was made to ‘stand on the tarmac in a very cold Verona waiting for an already delayed flight.’

Alex Wedderburn also said he had been stuck at Verona airport waiting to board flight BA2591.

He wrote: ‘Everyone here has just run the Verona marathon and is exhausted and frustrated. Do you think this acceptable? Please find a solution asap!’

Metro understands that BA flights at other European airports have been delayed too, including at Naples.

Passengers flocked to contact the airline on social media, asking what was’wrong with British Airways website and app,’ with some saying they couldn’t check-in.

A British Airways spokesperson told Metro: ‘Our flights are currently operating, but are experiencing delays as our teams work to resolve a technical issue affecting some of our systems.’

A Heathrow spokesperson said: ‘We are aware of a technical issue that British Airways are investigating and we will be working with them to provide updates to passengers as soon as they are available.

‘Heathrow’s systems are operating as normal.’

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