BA crisis caused by ‘uncontrolled return of power’ to system

THE IT shutdown which led to chaos for British Airways was caused by the “uncontrolled return of power” following an outage, the airline has said.

Servers at its data centre Boadicea House, near Heathrow, were physically damaged by the malfunction and around 75,000 passengers were disrupted as flights were cancelled following the incident on Saturday morning.

The cause of the initial power outage and the subsequent surge has not yet been revealed.

The airline said in a statement: “There was a loss of power to the UK data centre which was compounded by the uncontrolled return of power which caused a power surge taking out our IT systems. So we know what happened we just need to find out why.

“It was not an IT failure and had nothing to do with outsourcing of IT, it was an electrical power supply which was interrupted.

“We are undertaking an exhaustive investigation to find out the exact circumstances and most importantly ensure that this can never happen again.”

The carrier was unable to resume a full schedule until Tuesday and many passengers who had already checked in when the issue emerged are still waiting to be reunited with their luggage.

Experts predict BA is facing huge compensation costs, with reports suggesting the bill could top £100m.

The airline said it will “comply with all relevant EU compensation regulations”, including welfare claims such as hotel accommodation, transport to and from hotels, meals and telephone calls.

All of the delayed bags have been processed at Heathrow and are on their way to customers around the world.

The airline accepted “it may take some time to complete the process” especially for customers with complex itineraries.

BA’s parent company, IAG, saw shares initially fall by around four per cent in the first day of trading in London after the outage occurred. On Saturday, travellers spent the night sleeping on yoga mats spread on terminal floors after BA cancelled all flights leaving Heathrow and Gatwick.

The airline said it has a freephone number – 0800 727 800 – for people affected and customers are advised to check www. ba.com.