Delays spark Gatwick misery

Hundreds of British holidaymakers have been left stranded for two days by a series of delays at Gatwick.

More than 200 passengers arrived at the airport on Monday to check in for a flight to Turkey only to be told the plane would not fly for 24 hours due to technical problems.

Last night, as they prepared finally to board flight MYT1453 for Bodrum, they were informed it had again been cancelled and would not take off until today because of more problems.

Armed police were called to the south terminal's departure lounge as tempers frayed, while a further 200 passengers waiting in Turkey were told by holiday reps that their flight home had been delayed because of a bomb scare in Britain.

"It was pandemonium," said Paul Hamid, 26, from Ilford, due to fly to Turkey for a friend's birthday. "There were children crying. Some people had collapsed on the floor while others were shouting and swearing. It's been a nightmare."

Their ordeal began on Monday after they arrived for the 7pm flight. As they waited to board the plane they were told it had been delayed until 10pm.

But at 1am tour operator MyTravel told passengers that due to technical problems they would have to wait until the following evening to depart.

When they arrived for a second time yesterday afternoon, they were told there was a further delay and, like the night before, they would not be flying until 10pm.

The incoming flight, they were told, had blown a couple of tyres on landing. By the time engineers solved the problem, cabin crew had exceeded their maximum working hours and were not allowed to fly.

The plane was not expected to leave Gatwick until 11.30am today - 40 hours late.

"There are a lot of very tired and irate people," said George Nguyen-Xuan, 43, who was hoping to take his three children on holiday. "The kids are exhausted. Our week's holiday has already gone down to five days, which is upsetting to say the least."

When the flight was cancelled on Monday he and his children were left waiting for their luggage until 4am before returning home to Gipsy Hill. "When the same thing happened again the night after, we couldn't even get our luggage, because they said it was already on the plane."

He added: "There was no information and MyTravel seemed understaffed." Ed Kessler, 32, was flying to Turkey with his girlfriend for a sailing holiday.

"When we get to Turkey we will have to catch up with the boat somewhere - but I don't know if we will," he said. "This was an expensive holiday and we're thinking of not even going on it now, we've had enough. We are completely fed up. No one from the company is telling us what's going on. We can't get our luggage, they said it was taken up early because of security. It's a rubbish excuse."

Staff at the MyTravel helpline received so many calls that they left the phones off the hook, leaving switchboard staff at Gatwick to deal with angry passengers and relatives wanting to complain.

A BAA source told the Standard: "We are taking all the verbal abuse because MyTravel have taken their phones off the hook. It's incredible."

South terminal manager Andy Rozumski said: "The same thing is happening to passengers waiting to come home from Bodrum.

"Passengers there are being told by agents' representatives that the problem may be due to security problems - which is not true."

A spokeswoman for My Travel said the company was "very, very sorry" for the delays but said it was working hard to get passengers on their holidays as soon as possible.