A British Airways’ plane.
Nicolas Economou/Getty Images
Chaos erupted at JFK on Monday after British Airways grounded its flights out of the US.
Several passengers said they waited for hours on the tarmac while the airline sorted the issue out.
The airline told Insider the disruption was due to “a technical issue.”
Passengers were left fuming for hours after British Airways flights were grounded en-masse across airports in the US.
Some Twitter users said they were caught in chaos at the John F. Kennedy International Airport on Monday night and waited for hours on the tarmac for their plane to take off.
Writer Colin Dickey tweeted that he was “chillin’ on the tarmac” at JFK for hours.
“Captain of our @British_Airways flight just said that their flight computers have been down for two hours worldwide and no BA plane can file a flight plan?” Dickey wrote on Monday night.
—Colin Dickey (@colindickey) December 20, 2022
“@British_Airways’ system has been down worldwide for 3 hours now; Captain said the last time this happened (earlier this year, wtf), it took 2-3 hours once the system came back online,” he posted in a follow-up tweet.
Four hours after his first tweet — close to midnight — Dickey told Insider that his plane had just pulled away from the terminal.
Another Twitter user posted a video of the scene at JFK, where many passengers appeared to be sitting in a departure lounge waiting for their flight.
—Emily Lewis (@lou_lou_505) December 20, 2022
In a statement to Insider, British Airways said: “We’re experiencing delays to some of our flights due to a technical issue with our flight planning.”
“We’re sorry for the disruption to our customers’ journeys, we’re urgently investigating this so that they can travel as soon as possible,” the company added.
British Airways also told Insider that the technical issue did not affect any flights that have already departed, and is not a safety issue. The company also noted that the majority of short-haul flights on its carrier were not affected.
In a separate statement to the BBC, British Airways said the technical issue affected flights due to depart the US on Monday night.