BA pilot drives stranded elderly passenger home to Chelsea after IT meltdown

Chaos: Stranded passengers at Heathrow
Mark Chandler29 May 2017

A kind-hearted Heathrow pilot drove a stranded cancer sufferer home from the airport after the British Airways IT outage caused bank holiday havoc.

BA pilot Stephen Wearing had to park his plane for hours after a half-day flight from Rio to London on Sunday.

Finding one elderly passenger who was too frail to walk, Captain Wearing tried to call the person who had been meant to pick him up.

When they weren’t available, the 61-year-old helped the elderly man, called Victor, through the airport and drove him home to Chelsea.

He told the Telegraph: “Victor was ill with cancer. He'd had two strokes and we'd had to move him to Club (class) to lie down.

"It was an unbelievable situation. It was the worst I've experienced. That's why we thought it was maybe malicious.”

He explained: “There was a two-hour wait for the people who transport wheelchair passengers, so I got my two bags and Victor, and I pushed him through."

The pilot said his passenger was “incredibly grateful” for the help.

The GMB said the disruption could have been prevented if the beleaguered airline had not cut "hundreds of dedicated and loyal" IT staff and contracted the work to India in 2016.

There was a third day of disruption on Monday as both Heathrow and Gatwick warned Bank Holiday travellers they should check the status of their flights before travelling to the airports where scenes of chaos unfolded over the weekend.

Travellers spent the night sleeping on yoga mats spread on terminal floors on Saturday after BA cancelled all flights leaving the London hubs, while disruption continued into Sunday with dozens more services from Heathrow axed.

The IT outage had a knock-on effect on BA services around the world, while passengers who did get moving on the limited number of flights to take off from the UK reported arriving at their destinations without their luggage.

The disruption also hit transport systems on the ground, with hundreds of travellers flooding London's Kings Cross station in hope of boarding a train north instead.

Experts predict the knock-on effect could continue for several days and BA is facing huge compensation costs, with reports suggesting the bill could top £100 million.

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