British athletes stranded in Budapest amid UK flight chaos
British athletes are stranded in Budapest as flight chaos grips the country
PA
Around 40 British athletes and staff have been stranded in Europe due to flight delays after a successful World Championships outing.
Some British athletes were left stuck on the tarmac for up to six hours in Budapest, Hungary, before being told to return to the terminal, while another group of athletes and staff had to return to their hotel.
Meanwhile, travellers and holidaymakers have also been told to brace for days of disruption after a major technical fault caused 80 per cent of flights to be delayed and an estimated 1200 cancelled - in the single worst day of air traffic disruption since the Iceland volcano eruption in 2010.
Some athletes are now travelling from Budapest directly to Zurich, Switzerland for the 2023 Diamond League meeting on Thursday, while other athletes are working on getting flights back home however, a return date remains uncertain.
British athletes have been caught up in flight chaos
Elsewhere, members of the Irish team have also been affected by the travel delays and were told to wait until Friday before getting a flight back home.
Alternative transportation is also advised.
Three-times Olympic medal winner Steve Backley has described a nightmare journey as he joined with members of the BBC’s commentary team for the championships and tried to get home from Budapest using the train.
“Beginning to wonder if this was a good idea!!” the former javelin world record holder wrote, having been informed that he could not actually spend a three-hour wait for his next train inside one particular station.
“Interesting twist,” Backley said.
Speaking to GB News, transport secretary Mark Harper confirmed that an independent review has been ordered, and that the incident is currently not being treated as a case of cybersecurity but as a technical fault.
“This was a technical fault. We do not think this was a cybersecurity incident.
“And what will happen now with an incident of this magnitude is there will be an independent review.
“The Civil Aviation Authority will be putting together a report in the coming days, which obviously I will take a look at to see whether there are lessons to learn for the future, to see whether we can reduce the impact of this again.
“It’s nearly a decade since there was a significant issue like this.
“We want to make sure it doesn’t happen again, because of all the disruption that’s been caused to passengers across the country.” He added.
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The flight delays all come as Britain secured the joint highest haul at the World Athletics Championships, with 10 medals in Budapest equalling the performance in 1993 at Stuttgart.
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