Furious Elizabeth Hurley slams ‘dodgy’ British Airways as she’s left stranded in Antigua with ‘no food or water’ following 20 hours of delays
Furious Elizabeth Hurley slammed British Airways on Twitter on Tuesday she was left stranded in Antigua for more than 20 hours because of a technical failure.
Desperate customers trying to get home for Christmas – including actress Elizabeth – were left stuck after multiple planes across the United States and Caribbean, bound for London Heathrow and Gatwick, were grounded before take off on Monday night.
Elizabeth, 57, who lives in Herefordshire, told fans she would have to wait 20 hours for a flight, and had been left ‘with no food, water or hotel’.
Furious: Elizabeth Hurley has slammed ‘dodgy’ British Airways as she was left stranded in Antigua with ‘no food or water’ following 20 hours of delays on Tuesday
She eventually took a taxi ‘to escape the airport after more than 12 hours with no food or water’, as she warned others to ‘avoid flying.’
The beleaguered airline was forced to apologise after axing 15 flights out of Heathrow on Tuesday and leaving families inside airports and on the tarmac across Europe, the US and Asia.
There have also been reports of hours-long waits for luggage at Heathrow, while one man said he is ‘stuck in Boston’ after his flight was cancelled and has been unable to arrange alternative travel because BA’s telephone lines were so full.
ToughElizabeth tweeted she would be waiting 20 hours for a flight. She eventually took taxi ‘to escape airport after more than 12 hours with no food or water’
Almost all overnight transatlantic flights to Heathrow and Gatwick were disrupted by the glitch, with severe knock-on effects expected today with further flights potentially cancelled.
Some passengers reported being held on the tarmac for hours while cabin crew and pilots were left waiting on flight plans to get them to their destinations, with photos showing people sleeping in the aisle of some planes.
The technical issue caused massive delays to flights from the UK’s flagship airline, stranding passengers as at least nine long-haul flights to Heathrow were cancelled last night and this morning.
Departures to Denver, Boston, Tokyo, Washington DC, Nashville, Chicago, Toronto and three to New York JFK have been cancelled.
The flights were set to carry at least 5,000 people, all of whom now face having to find alternate ways of getting to the UK just days before Christmas, the Independent reports.
Several other flights suffered long delays, including one from the US city of Philadelphia which is expected to land more than five-and-a-half hours behind schedule.
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic STOP taking bookings for flights to Heathrow on Border Force Christmas strike days: Click here to read more
In a statement, BA said: ‘Our flights due to depart the USA tonight are currently delayed due to a technical issue with our third-party flight planning supplier, which we are urgently investigating.
‘We’re sorry for any disruption this will cause to our customers’ plans, our aim is for these flights to depart as quickly as possible.’
‘This is not a safety issue. We are keeping our customers up to date and providing them with refreshments,’ the airline added.
In a statement issued later in the night, it said: ‘Our teams have now resolved a temporary issue that affected some of our long-haul flight planning systems overnight, which resulted in delays to our schedule.
‘We’re sorry for the disruption caused to our customers’ travel plans.’
BA has been contacted for comment about the delays at Terminal 5.
It comes days before potentially more Christmas chaos, as Border Force staff go on walk out for eight days between December 23 and New Year’s Eve in a dispute over pay.
BA and Virgin Atlantic both announced that would be cutting the number of bookings into Heathrow as a result of the action, which will also see staff go on strike at Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham and Cardiff.
Shocking: Photos taken on one flight show people sleeping in the aisle during the long delay for take off
Chaos: Video showed hundreds of bags piled up waiting to be returned to their owners at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 last night
It’s understood that all airline operators at Heathrow were urged to limit the number of new tickets being sold.
British Airways said that people already booked to travel to the airport during the strike days will still be able to do so.
A BA spokesperson said the carrier was working with the government and airport ‘to ensure that we play our part in ensuring our customers are able to travel as planned at this important time of year’.
A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson also said it was working closely with government to ‘minimise the impact of Border Force strikes on our customers’ journeys’.
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