Flight Chaos
By pgn
@pgntwo (22405)
Derry, Northern Ireland
May 27, 2017 1:12pm CST
"Two little dickie-birds, sitting on a wall.
One called Peter, the other called Paul..."
Some of you may know how this rhyme goes. Except for most of today, if you're a British Airways (BA) customer, you'll have been sitting - in an airport departure hall, in a plane on the tarmac or in a baggage drop or pick-up hall, at any of the 170 destinations across 70 or so countries served by the airline.
Something took out the airline's IT systems earlier today, Sat 27th May, 2017. No, nothing like the Ransomware outbreak a couple of weeks back that affected many IT systems around the world - this outage seems to have stemmed from a power failure, so it has been revealed in the video below released at 18:30GMT.
The failure has crippled the airline's ability to track passenger manifests and luggage movements, to take on-line bookings or to handle queries at their website, and this even means their call centers are unable to operate.
All BA flights from London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports today were cancelled, first up until 18:00 and now for the rest of Saturday. It is anticipated that recovery, assuming IT services are restored tonight, could take days as aircraft and crews are out of position...
Oh yes, and it is a holiday weekend in the US and UK. Typical.
And yes, you can see people milling around behind the BA plane in the picture above.
Our Chairman & CEO, Alex Cruz, discusses the disruption caused by today's major IT system failures.
6 people like this
6 responses
@TiarasOceanView (70020)
• United States
27 May 17
Yes I just saw this a while ago.
It is utter pandemonium.
Passengers at Heathrow airport in London spoke of frustration at the lack of information from British Airlines, Saturday. One passenger said: "We can't find ...
1 person likes this
@TiarasOceanView (70020)
• United States
27 May 17
@pgntwo I am glad its not me traveling. So many of these systems going down lately aye?
1 person likes this
@pgntwo (22405)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
27 May 17
@TiarasOceanView So it seems. This one seems to be related to an electrical failure somewhere, though - some redundancy must not have been as redundant as initially thought... 
1 person likes this
@garymarsh6 (24028)
• United Kingdom
27 May 17
You would have thought that there would be some kind of back up system in place certainly a back up generator. Thankfully my daughter is not on duty as she would be stuck somewhere or another waiting to get back to the UK. It can have a knock on effect for days because planes and crew are in the wrong places.Just goes to show how reliant we are on technology. It will be a very expensive time for BA. Perhaps they will invest instead of Mr Cruz cutting back to the bone on essential services!
1 person likes this
@pgntwo (22405)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
27 May 17
I cannot determine where their data center is - somewhere in Harmondsworth, I suspect. Can't find any indication of power disruption in the area, so not sure what could have so drastically impacted their IT systems. Mr Cruz a bit of a cost cutter, is he?
1 person likes this
@pgntwo (22405)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
28 May 17
@garymarsh6 T'is the Spanish way, I think.
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@garymarsh6 (24028)
• United Kingdom
28 May 17
@pgntwo He is turning BA into a high cost low frills airline!
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@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
30 May 17
Weird that a power failure would disrupt the whole group of planes and info rather than just interrupting the areas where the power failure was. I don't think I've ever heard of that before, unless it was related to the ransomware and they're trying to keep it hush hush?
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21845)
• Canada
28 May 17
I am so glad I'm not flying anywhere for a while. I hope it gets fixed soon, can't imagine having made plans that just disappear...
1 person likes this
@pgntwo (22405)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
28 May 17
Many, many British Airways customers affected - wedding plans and holidays ruined, spent waiting in queues only to be turned back.
Similar events have happened before when a commercial carrier has gone bankrupt, many people dotted around the world had to make their own way home by whatever means possible and hope they could claim off insurance, which can take many months, if not years, to get any money back.
Also when all flights to and from Egypt's Red Sea resorts, and Tunisian resorts, were cancelled due to terrorist activities, there was a lot of disruption.
The Volcanic ash and 9/11 events' effects were much more widespread.
1 person likes this
@pgntwo (22405)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
29 May 17
@PainsOnSlate It's nearly over, the cancellations are almost all clear and the only outstanding task, apart from handling all the claims for costs from claimants, is to reunite people with baggage that had to be left at the airports affected in London.
Skip Navigation Advanced Search Search terms Sort by Default Summary Direction Ascending Descending Search Tips Search for a word or phrase Answer Id 5778 | Updated 29/05/2017 11.34 AM (UK time) Summary We are continuing to make good progress in reu
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@PainsOnSlate (21845)
• Canada
29 May 17
@pgntwo I've never had a problem on any flight but I don't travel by air very often. I feel sad for all those caught in the mess.
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@Poppylicious (11134)
• United Kingdom
29 May 17
Have Peter and Paul flown away yet? Will they be coming back? I used to like that little ditty, but having mulled over it just now, I realise it's a bit abrupt and boring!
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