Armed police called at Heathrow after passenger mutiny over 10-hour flight delay
Armed police were called to Heathrow's Terminal Five on Monday after furious passengers staged a mutiny following a 10-hour flight delay.
Hundreds of passengers waiting to fly to New York were left stranded after a mechanical fault on British Airways Boeing 747.
Police arrived at the scene after some travellers finally snapped and surrounded the boarding gate desk demanding to know when they were going to fly, reports the Express.
One passenger Brenda Baxter, aged 59, from Nottingham, told the Mirror: "It was very scary. My first thought was that there had been a terrorist attack.
"It was awful. There was a big crowd up by the desk and people were getting really irate. The next thing, about ten armed police turned up.
"Six of them took up positions behind the desk and others stood amongst the seated passengers. It was very intimidating."
She said that passengers were kept on the plane without air conditioning for three hours, and only got refreshments after two hours.
They were then given food vouchers and asked to disembark and wait in the terminal for a replacement plane.
After an hour, they were told the new plane would be ready within minutes.
But passengers then lost their tempers when they were ultimately told that crew could no longer fly because they were "out of hours".
Ms Baxter added that children were in tears and there was a lot of arguing.
According to the Standard, a Met Police spokesman said: "Officers were called at 3.30pm to reports of a disturbance in Terminal 5 at Gate 33.
"There were no arrests and officers left the location at approximately 4.20pm. No offences were recorded."
BA has now launched an investigation into the incident.
At least the passengers weren't at any of these airports...
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