Some people get mad, while others see the humour and find themselves a little social media fame in the process – it’s the natural division between Internet users that always seems to surface in any breaking news situation.
Even an airline’s unfortunate global IT outage.
In case you’ve missed the weekend’s aviation disruption, British Airways experienced a bit of (and by ‘bit of’ we actually mean ‘major’) a computer issue over the weekend, which forced the airline to cancel and delay services across its network.
Heathrow and Gatwick Airports beared the brunt of cancellations, but to make matters worse, the issue occurred over a public holiday, which means more travellers were affected than on any other regular weekend.
Fortunately, the carrier’s Chief Executive, Alex Cruz, said the company’s IT experts have managed to get a number of systems back online now and crew are “pulling out all the stops” to get passengers in the air.
“We are doing our best to sort things out for you.”
Alex Cruz, British Airways Chief Executive
According to Cruz, a number of the airline’s IT systems are back up today and flights to and from Gatwick Airport are running at full operation.
Over at Heathrow, the airline will fly all long-haul services today, however Cruz said guests may experience a “knock-off effect”, which could cause a few extra delays. The same is expected for the airline’s short-haul operations.
Travellers holding a British Airways ticket are being used to avoid travelling to the airport unless they have a confirmed booking, which they can check on British Airways’ website.
Additionally, those flying from Heathrow, are being told to avoid travelling to the airport too early as passengers aren’t being admitted into Terminal 5 until 90 minutes before their flight is scheduled to take-off.
Hit play below for Alex Cruz’s full update:
In the meantime, Twitter users are finding the humour in the situation with some creatively funny tweets, such as…
… the foreigner hanging out in Heathrow so long he’s picked up an English accent
I have been in the heathrow airport so long I have picked an English accent. Thanks #britishairways
— Brad Keen (@Bradleykeen) May 27, 2017
And the guy who can’t figure out how flights are cancelled when the flight cancelling machines are out of operation
Flight is cancelled but we can't cancel the flight because the computers that cancel flights are down #britishairways
— Andrew Lee (@andi_lee) May 27, 2017
There’s this funny generator post
"Looks like we chose the wrong week to cancel the back up generator contract." #britishairways #ba pic.twitter.com/UNmhFPkbEi
— Trevor Lambert #SaveTheBBC (@TrevorMLambert) May 27, 2017
And the guy wondering if the airline tried IT basics
Tweet of the day #britishairways pic.twitter.com/CokcN5UHu6
— Catalin Cimpanu (@campuscodi) May 27, 2017