Musashino Musings

This article written by Nick Denbow, Editor of Processing Talk

How many times have you flown into Heathrow after a long-haul business trip, with, if you are lucky, your car keys in your trouser pocket but no English money - that was long ago thrown into the suitcase - you have just a credit card, plus maybe some left-over dollars/euros/yen? Imagine then what happened to the people on the BA Boeing777 that delivered 95% of them to Heathrow from Beijing this week. In the words of Anne Robinson: "They left with nothing." In all cases no luggage, handbags, coats, just their shirtsleeves or what they were sitting in, but probably with no shoes. The ones with keys and wallets in their trouser pockets were lucky. The other 5% were given an ambulance ride to hospital, but this was not provided by BA.

The luggage for these passengers was used to cushion the Boeing777 impact onto the grass, and is now soaked in fuel and foam. Their passports are still in the lockers and the BA customer service did not even stretch to a cup of tea: just a ration of water but no food during a three-hour detention for a grilling as to why they had the audacity to be on that aeroplane. After this they were apparently told to walk
away: in stockinged feet with nothing to carry and in many cases no money, no transport and no help to get home from BA. And if your car keys are still in the locker? BA says: 'Hard luck, it could be a long walk home.' If you do have any money, and are not driving, maybe you could buy yourself a stiff drink after one of the most amazing crash landings ever: no help from BA there either.

So, not content with nearly wiping out a plane load of innocents, BA simply washes its hands of resposibility and walks away. From my experience, BA is the most incompetant and overpriced of any airline I know. To treat its customers like this is unforgivable. I just hope somebody has the guts to sue BA into oblivion for their shambolic performance.