London, Gatwick Airport has resorted to using marking pens and whiteboards to post flight information after a technical failure caused electronic message boards to malfunction.
‘Chaos’ at Gatwick as staff forced to display flight information on whiteboard: https://t.co/ZrpfNhU6qV #Aviation #Airport pic.twitter.com/fHNMhASy33
— SpeedBird (@SpeedBird_NCL) August 21, 2018
Some people have missed flights in the confusion as passengers crowded around boards filled with handwritten flight numbers and departure times. Gatwick says the electronic boards were displaying incorrect information because of a damaged fiber-optic cable, and it expects telecom provider Vodafone to “resolve the issue soon.”
When the #tech goes down. Old #school #gatwick pic.twitter.com/ScTSK4lufV
— Ty Goddard (@ty_goddard) August 20, 2018
Ayla Herbert, 26, from Penryn, Cornwall, said some passengers became agitated and yelled for more boards as the crowd grew “larger and larger.”
Herbert says: “The guys did well keeping everyone updated, but it was hard to see if you weren’t close to the board. They used megaphones to tell everyone of updated information.”