British Airways aims to resume flights after major IT failure saw systems crash across the world and caused travel chaos in airports
The airline has said they believe the root cause was a 'power-supply' issue
A GLOBAL computer crash grounded British Airways flights from Heathrow and Gatwick airports — sparking chaos for 200,000 holidaymakers.
The airline's check-in and operational systems crashed, with passengers trying to travel on Bank Holiday weekend left stranded - with disruptions expected to carry on until tomorrow.
But British Airlines has now said it is aiming to operate a near normal schedule at Gatwick and the majority of services from Heathrow on Sunday.
Travellers tonight reported to the Sun Online that they have been able to check-in on Sunday flights, with it a flicker of hope for those left stranded.
It comes after angry travellers took to social media to complain about missed flights.
Delays were reported in the US, Rome, Prague, Milan, Stockholm and Malaga.
The log-jam also hit passengers landing as they had nowhere to disembark.
Amid the "carnage" ground staff resorted to scrawling messages for pilots on pieces of paper.
Huge queues formed inside and outside airport buildings today, one of the hottest days of the year so far in the UK.
Despite initial reports from passengers that the disruptions had been caused by a cyber attack, BA has said that a "power supply issue" was most likely behind the global IT failure.
Chief executive Alex Cruz said: "We believe the root cause was a power supply issue and we have no evidence of any cyber attack."
In a statement earlier today, BA said: "We have experienced a major IT system failure that is causing very severe disruption to our flight operations worldwide.
"The terminals at Heathrow and Gatwick have become extremely congested and we have cancelled all flights from Heathrow and Gatwick before 6pm UK time today, so please do not come to the airports."
The airline have since announced that flights from the two airports will be cancelled for the rest of the day.
They added: "We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience this is causing our customers and we are working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible."
There were reports of BA staff telling disgruntled passengers trying to get away for the Bank Holiday weekend that the company was under cyber attack.
Passenger Jo Josson said: "Officials are telling us there has been a cyber attack against BA's systems. Even the tannoy is affected."
Another, Michele Andjel, said a British Airways flight captain announced: ";It appears to be a cyber attack."
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The airline could be facing huge compensation costs due to the unprecedented disruption, with delayed travellers potentially able to claim compensation under EU law.
Air industry consultant John Strickland said: "There's a massive knock-on effect.
"Dealing with the backlog of aircraft out of position, parking spaces for the aircraft - it's a challenge and a choreographic nightmare."
He added that the problems with BA's IT systems last year were not on the scale of this issue.
"They were bedding in a new check-in system last year and there were teething problem but not of the magnitude of this.
He said the timing of the tech disruptions had compounded the issue.
Several customers complained of "disgraceful" customer service from BA staff who gave out little information while others said the IT outage had caused "carnage" at airports.
As well as Gatwick and Heathrow, BA fliers have found themselves stuck in the USA, France, Northern Ireland, Portgual and Italy - sparking fears they could be stuck for several days.
Londoner Terry Page, 28, was booked on a flight to Texas but was left stuck in a queue at Terminal 5 in Heathrow Airport for two hours.
Staff had 'no idea' how to handle it
STRANDED passengers have claimed British Airways had no idea how to handle the chaos, writes Jacob Dirnhuber.
Gary Smith, 44, from Sidcup, South East London, was due to fly from Heathrow to New York with his kids, eight and 11, and wife Emma for her 40th birthday.
He said: “The BA staff were hiding, we couldn’t get a straight answer out of anyone.
“We learned that our flight was cancelled from Sky News, not the staff. BA haven’t dealt with it at all, they’ve got no clue.
“The communication has been terrible all day.”
Ben Smith, 38, was due to fly from Heathrow to Minorca for a family holiday. He said: “We spoke to five people and got five separate stories.
“It doesn’t seem like the staff know what they’re doing. We usually go on cruises. This is why.”
Londoner Terry Page, 28, was due to fly to Texas but was stuck in a queue at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 for two hours.
He claimed BA made “no announcements at all” and said: “We had to rely on the whisperings I could overhear from staff.”
Alma Saffari was stuck in Marseilles with her 13-month-old baby trying to return to Heathrow.
She sat on a plane for 90 minutes before the captain said the systems were down, but said she was given a voucher for food and drink.
He said BA "made no announcements at all" about the delays and added: "I tried to use their website to get a screenshot of my boarding pass - but the website isn't working either."
Traveller Soundron Vraty told The Sun Online she had travelled from India to London, on her way to start studying in Montreal.
But she is now stuck at Heathrow airport, with her connecting flight to Canada cancelled.
She said: "We were told that the flights were cancelled because of a problem with the computers.
"We're trying to find my baggage and then hopefully will find out when the flight will be rescheduled to - we don't know if it will be today or tomorrow."
The young student said her flight had been supposed to take off at 5.30pm, adding: "Everybody is now pushing everybody else and trying to find a solution.
"We haven't been told anything."
"(We) had to rely on the whispering I could hear from staff talking."
Mr Page added: "We've tried all of the self check-in machines; none were working, apart from one. There was a huge queue for it and it later transpired that it didn't actually work, but you didn't discover that until you got to the front."
"Then we queued for about an hour and a half with lots of people pushing in front to catch earlier flights."
Another customer, Henry Tail, said he couldn't log in to the app to fetch his boarding pass and had to miss his flight.
Have you been affected by British Airways' computer problems? Contact The Sun Online's news team by emailing [email protected] or call us on 0207 782 4368
Philip Bloom tweeted: "Stuck on a British Airways plane at Belfast, going nowhere. 'BA computers down worldwide', whatever that means!"
Earlier this morning, customer Roshni Burt wrote from Heathrow's Terminal 5: "British Airways systems down. Huge queues at check in. No explanation. Not good."
Morten Amtoft posted a picture of the error message he received when he tried to access the airline's website.
Another customer, Tom Beckett, said he was stuck in Kiev and made jabbed the airline for its recent decision to scrap free food and drink from their flights.
He wrote: "Dear British Airways, perhaps it's time to reinvest all that money you aren't spending on tea and sandwiches on technology."
Passengers at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 are understood to be at a standstill with the operators saying it was "working closely" with Britain's national carrier to resolve the issue.
In another statement, a BA spokeswoman confirmed that the delays were caused by a technical difficulties that were discovered this morning.
They said: "We would never compromise the integrity and security of our IT systems.
"IT services are now provided globally by a range of suppliers and this is very common practice across all industries and the UK Government.
"British Airways employs around 35,000 people in the UK, providing high-skilled and well-paid jobs. It hires 1,000 people a year and has a strong apprenticeship programme."
'Yet more damage'
THIS chaos follows weeks of criticism of BA, says Travel Editor Lisa Minot
It stopped serving free food and drinks on short flights, while some long-haul routes have had their second meal service axed.
The airline faces increasing competition from low-cost airlines on European and long-haul routes and is taking some tough decisions.
But for many, the cuts have gone too far. Brits expect a certain level of service from BA.
And, although its cause is not yet known, this IT shutdown will do the once-great airline’s reputation no good at all.
The GMB union said it all could have been avoided if "greedy" bosses hadn't outsourced IT work to India.
The travel chaos only adds to the disruption at Gatwick yesterday which saw families flying off for half-term holidays without their luggage.
The airport's baggage handling system broke down meaning 3,000 bags were not loaded onto the flights they were supposed to be.
The conveyor belt machines stopped working at around 5am and did not start again until 9.15am.