A pensioner with arthritis and mobility issues was left exhausted after being forced to stand in a queue at Heathrow Airport for three hours due to a cyber attacking crippling systems.
Heathrow, Brussels and Berlin airports all experienced delays and disruption over the issue on Friday and Saturday that affected CollinsAerospace.
Passengers at Heathrow were unable check in online on Saturday, and instead had to queue for hours to manually check in at desks and departure gates.
Those affected include Azmat Begum, 72, who also suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes, and was due to catch a 9.30am flight to Abu Dhabi, in United Arab Emirates, from Heathrow on Saturday before getting on a connecting flight to Islamabad, Pakistan.
Due to the chaos at the airport her flight was delayed until 2pm and she missed her connecting flight, leaving her stranded in Abu Dhabi for 12 hours. Only then was she able to get on the next flight to Pakistan, where she is visiting family, yesterday evening.
Due to the chaos, a journey that should have taken Mrs Begum around 17 hours instead took 33. As Mrs Begum, of Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, waited to be checked for her Etihad flight, her son Zee Razaq, was forced to hold her up, because she was unable to stand and felt exhausted.
Travellers wait near a check-in area at Heathrow Airport Terminal 2, amid flight delays and cancellations, resulting from a disruption caused by a cyberattack (Photo: Isabel Infantes/Reuters)Mr Razaq complained airport staff gave them little information as they queued – claiming they only told them that the delays were caused as “systems were down”.
He said: “We didn’t know it was a cyber attack. They were overrun. They didn’t know what to do. They didn’t know how long it was going to take [the length of time she would have to queue]. We were so stressed and tired, we were worried that she was going to miss her flight.
“They were understaffed, and not prepared. There was no communication.
“She is 72 years old, she has stood up for three hours, she was very tired, she was exhausted. She was holding onto me because she was so tired. After we checked in we had to just sit down, she just couldn’t walk anymore.”
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He claimed his mother’s nightmare journey was made worse by Etihad initially refusing to provide her with accommodation in Abu Dhabi as she waited for her connection, despite him telling her he was concerned for her welfare.
Mr Razaq said he rang the airline’s UK customer service number who said they could not help, before he called their Abu Dhabi office and they agreed to book her into a Marriott hotel in the city after he threatened legal action against them.
He said: “They were going to leave a 72-year-old woman in another country with her condition. It is mind-blowing really.”
While the disruption eased significantly in Berlin and Heathrow today, delays and flight cancellations were continuing.
A spokesperson for Brussels Airport said Collins Aerospace had not yet delivered a secure, updated version of the software necessary to restore full functionality.
Brussels Airport said 50 of Sunday’s 257 scheduled departures had been cancelled to avoid long queues and last-minute cancellations and half of tomorrow’s (22 September) flights are also expected to be axed.
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