Computer failure causes 10 hour delay
30.08.08
Hundreds of passengers were delayed for more than 10 hours in Newcastle Airport yesterday - because staff could not print off the flight plan. The North East holiday makers booked on Monarch flight 325 to Cancun, Mexico, are reported to have became increasingly agitated after they were left sitting in the departure lounge, with some telephoning a newspaper to ask if it knew what was happening.
The Journal reports that passengers arrived at the airport from around 04:00 yesterday, ready for the flight scheduled to depart at 07:00. The departure screen told customers at 07:00 that they would be boarding in 3 minutes - and then stayed like that for the next six hours.
Monarch Holidays told the newspaper that a computer failure meant staff were unable to print out or access information about the flight plan, passengers or weather conditions. The flight was unable to take off without them.
A spokeswoman said: ‘Unfortunately there was a system failure so they couldn’t print [the information] off. I presume staff would have spoken to [the passengers] but they couldn’t give them an exact departure time. We also had ten passengers who had then gone airside, and our representative can’t go through.’
The flight eventually took off at 14:15, over seven hours late. The spokeswoman added there would be no compensation for a delay of that length, but passengers had received a £6 food voucher.
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