British Airways’ 7-hour flight to nowhere

File photo dated 01/07/15 of a British Airways plane taking off from Heathrow airport, as the airline's flights between Inverness and Heathrow are operating for the first time in almost 20 years.. Issue date: Tuesday May 3, 2016. The daily service between the two airports resumed after BA ended the service in 1997. See PA story AIR Flights. Photo credit should read: Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA Wire
By Amy Bryant


So close yet so far.

That was the case for 180 passengers on a British Airways flight from Berlin to London Heathrow.

The flight BA983 wasn’t off to a good start when it left Berlin Tegel at 6:57 pm, five hours after it was due to depart at 1.50 pm.

To frustrate passengers a little bit more, the Airbus A320 was within an hour of touchdown in London before the plane was forced to chuck a ‘uey’ and turn back around due to the snow blizzard wreaking havoc across the UK and Europe.

The BA flight rerouted to Bournemouth Dorset around 145 kilometres in the other direction of London and kept passengers onboard while the plane remained on the tarmac for three very long hours.

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Passengers were not allowed hot drinks or access to food trolleys while stationed on the runway and were only permitted tap water upon request.

BA said that the safety of its passengers is the top priority (clearly customer service wasn’t in the given incident).

“When [we] are not able to operate flights into Heathrow as planned,” a British Airways spokesman said to the Telegraph UK. 

“We do our best to keep customers updated, and look after them, providing refreshments and hotel accommodation.”

Eventually, the passengers were escorted off the plane at 9:30 pm and put on coaches for the two-hour drive to Heathrow airport.

What should have been a two-hour flight from Berlin to London, turned into an incredible nine-hour journey for passengers.

Snowstorms are something we can usually dodge Down Under, but it has been causing chaos for travellers across the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in the UK.

The Express reported that around 50,000 British Airways customers have been stranded at Heathrow Airport this week.

Schiphol airport in the Netherlands has also had to ground 400 flights this week, while 200 were cancelled at Brussels airport.

Germany’s Frankfurt airport endured similar conditions, with more than 300 flights cancelled over the weekend.

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