Hundreds of British Airways passengers are stranded in Johannesburg after a series of problems affected links to and from London Heathrow.
The latest problem: Tuesday night’s A380 “SuperJumbo” from South Africa’s main airport was fully boarded and ready to depart on schedule – but, after passengers had sat on board for a further two hours, BA delayed the flight overnight.
“We had to disembark, trudge back through passport control, collect our bags and go to a hotel overnight,” one passenger said.
According to information at ba.com, of three British Airways flights due to depart on Tuesday from Johnannesburg to Heathrow, only one got away: the BA56 service originally due to leave on Monday.
Links on the main South Africa-Europe flight route were first disrupted on Sunday night when airspace over Niger was suddenly closed.
Sunday’s northbound and southbound Airbus A380 jets both turned around and returned to Johannesburg and London Heathrow respectively – leaving close to 1,000 passengers out of position and beginning a pattern of disruption.
The original Monday night flight from South Africa’s largest airport actually departed at lunchtime on Tuesday, arriving at Heathrow after 11pm – 17 hours behind schedule.
One Tuesday night flight that did take off was over three hours late, eventually departing early on Wednesday morning.
But the A380 “SuperJumbo” that was due to bring nearly 500 passengers back was delayed overnight.
One passenger told The Independent: “At 7.20pm the captain announced boarding was completed and the doors of the plane were closed.
“Ten minutes later he announced an unfortunate delay due to the third pilot feeling unwell. The captain told us they were trying to locate another pilot.
“Over the next two hours there was no news, no food or drinks – apart from one glass of water offered.”
At around 9.30pm the passengers were told to leave the aircraft as it was being delayed overnight. They were taken to hotels.
The passenger said: “To compound it all – sitting opposite me, a mum and her very tired son who had been on that turned-around flight, so by now had spent 13 hours on two BA planes to nowhere.”
Passengers were later told by BA: “Despite our best efforts, we’ve made the difficult decision to delay your departure overnight.
“We don’t underestimate the inconvenience this will cause. We’re really sorry for the change to your travel plans and we’ll do everything we can to help.”
The flight is now shown as leaving Johannesburg at 11.45pm on Wednesday, arriving 31 hours late at London Heathrow.