Terminal 5 meltdown goes into second 'terrible' day

Published on Friday 28 March 2008 21:23

AS SHE officially opened Terminal Five two weeks ago, the Queen predicted millions of travellers would appreciate the "thought and care" that went into its design.

Yesterday, amid the second chaotic day of the building's operating life, many passengers would have smiled ironically as the gleaming new terminal became an overnight hostel for exhausted flyers and the scene of arguments and jostling as long queues formed at British Airways desks.

Thor Joergernsen, who was returning to Oslo from a holiday in Lanzarote with his wife and two daughters, said: "It feels like we are crash-landed here."

He said: "We got here at 3am and our flight was supposed to leave at 7.15am, but it was cancelled and they didn't tell us. "They didn't tell us where to go and we've been moving from queue to queue. It's terrible."

A nightmare also greeted Tony Pascoe, from Oxfordshire, after arriving at 4am to accompany his mother on her first flight, to Vienna.

He said: "None of the desks was open and we were told to stand in a queue. After standing there for God knows how long they opened one and people who had just walked into the terminal began jumping in. It was chaotic.

"Everyone who had been queuing were annoyed and a lot of jostling and arguing started.

"It is diabolical. I am a frequent traveller and this is my worst experience ever – it is absolutely shocking."

Robert and Priscilla Greene, both 75, from New Mexico in the United States, said they had no choice but to sleep in the terminal after their bags were lost on a flight from Edinburgh.

Mr Greene said: "We spent six hours waiting for our bags until 1.30am. We still haven't found them but it was too late to go to a hotel because we had to be back at the airport for 5am. We slept on the hard black plastic chairs which was like sleeping on concrete. All they gave us was a bottle of water and a biscuit."