British Airways Has Had A Massive Outage, Which Has Resulted In The Cancellation Of Multiple Flights And The Stranding Of People On Planes After Landing At Heathrow

On Friday evening, the airline's website and app were down for many hours, preventing customers from checking in online or booking tickets.

The airline stated that the disruption was not caused by a cyber attack and that passengers who had their flights cancelled will be offered a refund or rebooking options.

Ed Hall, 54, a television executive from Woodstock, Oxfordshire, was detained on a plane for almost an hour after arriving at Heathrow Terminal 5 because the crew was unable to access any IT systems in order to locate a stand where passengers could depart.

He claimed there were problems even before his BA 399 flight from Brussels took off.

According to Mr. Hall, who spoke to the Press Association, "We were unable to take off because the pilot's system for calculating weight, loads, and distribution fell down, and we were forced to return to the gate from the runway in order to obtain a (manual) copy transmitted from London.

'We have contingency plans,' says the narrator.

In a statement, British Airways said: "This evening, we are experiencing substantial technical challenges that are disrupting the operation and, unfortunately, have resulted in the cancellation of a number of flights.

"We are working as swiftly as possible to rectify the situation, and we have backup measures in place to ensure that clients flying this evening can check in at the airport.

"We apologize if this is taking longer than normal, but we are working hard to get as many of our planes out as possible."

Passengers concerned about their Saturday flights will be notified of any changes by the airline, which said it will "make decisions" about its weekend operations as soon as possible.