Girl, 5, sleeping on inflatable on airport floor as chaos leaves family stranded
A five-year-old girl was left sleeping on a rubber ring on the floor of an airport after air traffic chaos stranded her and her family abroad.
Hundreds of thousands of passengers were hit by the severe issues that plagued the UK’s air traffic controllers yesterday. It led to hundreds of flights in and out the country being cancelled, and even more delayed and held. This led to travellers across the UK and Europe being stranded, stuck, often in planes on runways, unable to go anywhere.
Steph Wagstaff, from Pontypridd, was due to fly back from the Canary Islands to Bristol with easyJet after a family getaway with her partner and four kids. But when they found out that their flight had been cancelled, and with no other options, they were stuck, sleeping on the floor of the airport.
Steph Wagstaff's five year old daughter Gracie had to sleep in a blowup rubber ring at the airport due to flight delays (Steph Wagstaff)
Another one of her children, three-year-old Nyah, slept in the stroller as the family camped out (Steph Wagstaff)Speaking to WalesOnline, she said: "We are still stuck, we have been stuck since arriving at the airport just after 7:45pm last night. We only knew our flights were cancelled due to tracking the flight at 6:15pm yesterday evening with our transfer being at 7pm."
She explained how the family were left forced to bed down at the airport. She said: "Two 10 year olds, Tyler and Fynn, on the chairs, five-year-old Gracie in a blowup rubber ring and a three-year-old Nyah in a stroller. My partner has only just managed to fall asleep and I have been awake since 9am yesterday morning.
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"We still have no idea on next steps, any staff at the airport have no idea what is happening either. The delay and the unknown has also caused my son, who is in the middle of being assessed ADHD and ASD, to suffer with night terrors."
When asked how she felt, Steph added: "I’m annoyed, upset, anxious due to the unknown and I should be returning to work Wednesday morning, which could possibly put me at risk with my employment."
NATS, who are in charge of the UK’s airspace, were hit by a problem that stopped them from automatically processing flight plans. This meant that they had to be done manually, but their sheer volume of plans meant a huge number of flights were grounded. They later added: “Our priority is always to ensure that every flight in the UK remains safe and we are sincerely sorry for the disruption this is causing.” It is thought hundreds of thousands of passengers were affected and many are still thousands of miles from home today.
Meanwhile, Benjamin Groves from Port Talbot with his family of five had a flight with TUI booked from Bulgaria to Cardiff Airport. "The whole situation has been a nightmare," he said. "There are five of us travelling, myself, my wife, father and two sons aged 7 and 10."
He added: "We have been in the airport for six hours. We were told our flight was cancelled. Put onto buses. 40 of us were sent to the Hotel Boomerang in Sunny Beach. We were left in the foyer of a hotel for hours after being dropped off. The hotel was great in providing refreshments even though there was no room for us or any record of us staying there.
“We later got hold of the airport who sent a replacement bus and got hold of TUI. This took all 40 of us to a new airport in Burgas. The only food and drink we were given at the airport was a bottle of water or Coke and a chocolate croissant as they were putting us on buses some 6 hours after being at the airport. We have also had no feedback as to when a replacement flight is coming. The whole situation has been shambolic, with lack of information for passengers."
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