BA will say what caused IT chaos

EMBATTLED British Airways has commissioned an independent investigation into its IT fiasco that left thousands stranded over the bank holiday weekend.

The airline, which previously said it had embarked on an ‘ exhaustive’ investigation into the disaster, is asking an ‘independent company’ to examine the computer problems that disrupted its operations two weeks ago and left 75,000 passengers stranded.

Willie Walsh, chief executive of IAG which owns BA, said the investigation ‘will be peer reviewed and we will be happy to disclose details’.

He added that the electrical incident was caused by human error and occurred when an electrical engineer disconnected the uninterruptible power supply, therefore shutting down the data centre.

But the damage was caused when the power was restored in an uncontrolled fashion.

Walsh said: ‘It’s very clear to me that you can make a mistake in disconnecting the power. It’s difficult for me to understand how to make a mistake in reconnecting the power.’