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British Airways bank holiday chaos likely caused by 'human error'

The meltdown, which saw 75,000 passengers stranded, was at first suspected to be the result of a cyber attack.

BA IT problem An empty British Airways check-in at Gatwick Airport last weekend Gareth Fuller Gareth Fuller

THE ONLINE CHAOS experienced by British Airways over the UK bank holiday weekend was likely caused by human error it has emerged.

An investigation into the power issue that crippled the airline on one of its busiest weekends is now likely to focus on human error rather than problems with equipment, according to the UK Times.

It’s claimed that the power supply unit in question was in working order, but was nevertheless shut down.

The catastrophic power outages saw the airline cancel all its flights out of major London airports Heathrow and Gatwick, leaving some 75,000 passengers stranded.

“We have experienced a major IT system failure that is causing very severe disruption to our flight operations worldwide,” BA said in a statement at the time.

Willie Walsh, the Irish chief executive of International Airlines Group (IAG) said yesterday that BA bosses were to be commended for “doing everything possible” to sort the situation after its online meltdown last weekend.

BA has garnered criticism for hitherto failing to promise full compensation to affected passengers, a fact which led Walsh to respond that it would make “sure that any of our customers who experienced disruption are satisfied with how we handled things”.

Many customers have still not had their bags returned to them, despite the fact they never made their scheduled journey.

Read: Over ’10,000 unscrupulous applications’ made for free tickets to Manchester benefit gig

Read: It ain’t over yet – Trump has taken his travel ban all the way to the US Supreme Court

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