It's a whiteout at Gatwick Airport (in August!)
It was back to the drawing board at Gatwick Airport on Monday, August 20th, when the departure boards went blank.
Monday, 20 Aug 2018 14:39 GMT
White boards were used after the electronic screens failed to work. Pic: BBC
And so, it was a return to the low tech but reliable white board as the staff wrote out the times of flights by hand. The digital screens failed to work forcing this piece of improvisation as thousands of travellers waited to see when their flights were set to depart, causing some to miss their flights due to a lack of information.
A damaged Vodafone cable was the issue with the airport’s engineers drafted into action to fix it. The BBC reported that the airport said: "Our engineers are working hard to fix the cable as quickly as possible. This is a top priority for us.” They also said that: “An airport spokesman apologised to passengers affected by the issue, adding that a ‘handful of people’ had missed their flights. Passengers have been advised to use the temporary flight information boards in the departure lounges or listen for airline flight announcements. All flights are currently leaving on time.”
The Mail Online reported on a passenger from Cornwall who said: “Each flight was written down, flight number, time of departure, time of when boarding would be announced and eventually the gate number. This crowd over the hours grew larger and larger. Being in the entrance way of the departures it got incredibly busy, people were agitated, yelling for them to tell them their flight info and to get more boards for the South Terminal. The guys did well to keep everyone updated, but it was hard to see if you weren't close to the board. They used megaphones to tell everyone of updated information.'
Each flight was written down, flight number, time of departure, time of when boarding would be announced and eventually the gate number”
A Gatwick Airport authority said in a Tweet: “Due to damage to a Vodafone fibre optic cable, we are continuing to display our flight info manually. Contingencies are working - we have whiteboards and friendly staff on hand to help, and tens of thousands of passengers have departed on time. Apologies for any inconvenience.”
Did you miss your flight? Should manually written signs be bought back anyway to give extra information at airports? Email your views to Harry - Harry@linkpublishing.co.uk or call me on 0117 9805 040. Or react to the story on Twitter and have your say.
