British Airways cancels flights and staff go out in plain clothes for fear of being beaten

After a problem with British Airways (BA) systems that led to the cancellation of several flights, some passengers were irritated to the point of attacking employees who, out of fear, had to leave London airport in plain clothes.

All BA short-haul flights from Heathrow were canceled on Saturday, while everything from the passenger-facing website and app to essential departure control systems was affected by the system failure.

With the failure, British Airways employees were spit on and subjected to abuse, while others were forced to remove their uniforms to escape Heathrow Airport without being surrounded by angry passengers.

Employees had to stay at the airport and advise passengers with disabilities that they would have to sleep there, in addition to watching parents put their children to sleep on top of their luggage.

The collapse, caused by an IT incident, was blamed by the GMB union on the company’s decision to outsource its technical support to India in 2016 and lay off workers in the sector. British Airways suffered another IT failure in 2017, had its systems hacked a year later and still hasn’t said what caused the latest meltdown.

“It didn’t have to be this way – but the underinvestment in the business, plus the decision in 2016 to lay off hundreds of dedicated and loyal IT staff and outsource the work to India are taking their toll,” the union said. “Our experienced, dedicated and hardworking members fear this is just the tip of the iceberg for the airline, with a summer of chaos.

In a statement, British Airways took the blame for the issues: “We are sorry to our customers, it has been a very difficult week and we can only apologize for any further disruption they may experience tonight. updated on what’s going on.”