British Airways ‘grounds flights’ as IT outage sees passengers stranded on tarmac

British Airways flights are “grounded” as thousand of passengers are reportedly sat on the tarmac.

It is believed the issue is due to a huge IT outage that affected the company’s software. Reports suggest passengers started to flag problems at around 5pm.

The major IT clitch led to pilots being prevented from filing flight plans electronically – and instead they had to manually call Heathrow Airport.

Flight Emergency posted on X: “British Airways have lost all Communications to aircraft around Europe due to an IT outage.

“Flights will be managed by Heathrow air traffic control to get inbound flights back to base.”

One passenger wrote on X: “Absolute shambles three flights cancelled this month and now being made to stand on the tarmac in a very cold Verona waiting for an already delayed flight. What has happened to the nations airline? Not fit for purpose.”

Another said: “British Airways appear to have had a major IT outage…again. Flight currently grounded, captain currently furious. Sass flying at about 45,000 feet as he gives fantastic passive aggressive updates. “He can’t get hold of anyone for an update @British_Airways can you help?”

A spokesperson for Heathrow Airport said: “We are aware of a technical issue that British Airways are investigating and we will be working with them to provide updates with passengers as soon as they are available.

“Heathrow’s systems are operating as normal.”