A British Airways flight from Naples to London Heathrow turned into a proper nightmare for 180 passengers when the flight was delayed by more than 24 hours, leaving customers stressed, tired, and angry at the airline. So much so, that some are now reported to be starting a class action. Let's see the details of this significant disruption.

The timeline of the delay

On August 17th, British Airways flight BA2613 from Naples to London Heathrow was scheduled for 9.30. According to FlightRadar24.com, the flight was operated by G-EUYK, a 12-year-old A320-200. One of the passengers, the Italian lawyer Paola Capobianco, told the Italian daily newspaper "La Repubblica" about how the events played out.

Everything started as a routine flight; passengers boarded the aircraft, and the cabin was prepared for take-off. However, the plane did not leave its parking position. The captain made several announcements, stating there was a problem with the Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS) and that the aircraft was therefore not allowed to leave.

At 12:14, passengers de-boarded the plane to have lunch in the terminal but were asked to leave their carry-ons onboard. At 14:50, everyone boarded the aircraft again; however, passengers reported engines were repeatedly turned on and off. More announcements were made from the cockpit, but were incoherent. The flight crew interchangeably indicated technical malfunctioning and traffic congestion over London Heathrow as the reasons for the continuous delay.

Jake Hardiman British Airways Airbus A320 Frankfurt
Passengers of British Airways flight BA2613 from Naples to London on August 17th experienced a colossal delay of almost 29 hours. Photo: Jake Hardiman - Simple Flying

At 17.00, passengers were eventually asked to de-board the A320 - the flight had been canceled. After an hour spent talking to ground staff, customers were informed they had been re-accomodated on a British Airways flight leaving the following day, August 18th, at 12.30, accumulating a delay of more than 24 hours. The flight would be operated by the same aircraft, the 20-year-old A320-200. Hotel rooms had been booked in Caserta; a 30 minutes drive from Naples. Oddly, the lawyer stated the flight status appeared as "in-flight" on the airline's website.

Thomas-BoonBritish Airways59
Photo: Thomas Boon - Simple Flying

The following day, the chaos started at the check-in counter, where the 12:30 replacement flight overlapped with the scheduled 9:30 BA2613 flight. After two hours spent queueing at check-in, boarding began. However, at 13.05, the A320 had not moved from its parking position. The stress level in the cabin reached such a point that a cabin crew member reportedly started crying.

Some customers asked to disembark; however, this went against safety protocol, and the captain denied the request. At that point, Ms. Capobianco and other passengers contacted the airport police. Moments later, the captain announced the aircraft was cleared for take-off. According to data from FlightRadar24.com, the flight landed at Heathrow at 16.22 on August 18th, with a colossal delay of approximately 29 hours.

Things got worse

Such a delay meant many passengers lost their connecting flight, causing the unpleasant process of finding alternatives and asking for refunds at the airport counters.

For Ms. Capobianco and her group of friends, the nightmare was far from over. The lawyer and two friends were supposed to board the 22.30 flight to Mexico City. Once at the gate, however, the ground staff denied boarding to the group of friends, stating there had been an error in issuing the tickets on the part of British Airways. As if this was not enough, their luggage had never left Naples.

Hopeless and exhausted, the friends decided to fly back to Naples the following day. However, they are determined not to let the airline get away with the poor service delivered; a class action against British Airways has indeed been initiated by Ms. Capobianco and some of the passengers of flight BA2613.

British Airways plane at airport
Photo: Getty Images 

The incident happened at a very inconvenient moment for the British flag carrier; over the past few months, the airline has had to deal with several disruptions, ranging from flight delays to cancellations, lost luggage, and other unpleasant passenger experiences. Mainly, pent-up demand for air travel caused Heathrow, one of Europe's busiest hubs, to fail in handling the rapidly increasing volumes of passengers, to the point that British Airways had to cap the sale of short-haul flights from the airport in an attempt to limit the unacceptable number of disruptions.

An airline representative told Simple Flying that a technical malfunction caused the unfortunate disruption and that the airline would never allow one of its aircraft to take off unless undoubtedly sure the plane could fly safely. Indeed, in a note to the passengers of flight BA2613, British Airways stressed how the safety of passengers and crew is always the airline's top priority.

How would you have reacted to a disruption of this scale? Let us know in the comment section below!