Fog grounds flights at London Heathrow

UK's biggest airport, Heathrow, grounds 132 flights and second day of disruption likely. Sharron Livingston is in the thick of it and reports from the ground

By Sharron Livingston on 21 November 2011 in News

As we were waiting at London Heathrow Airport for our flight to Seychelles to take off, the staff on board the Air Seychelles flight were pleasant and sympathetic trying to appease the passengers with drinks and nibbles.

But after two and a half hours sitting in the plane it became clear that we were not about to fly anywhere on Sunday night thanks to a blanket of thick fog.

Our flight was among 132 flights grounded at Heathrow on Sunday night. We disembarked and all passengers have been put up at Windsor Castle hotel, 30 minutes drive away, but our luggage remains on the plane. All we had is what we are carrying with us. We were given toiletries like a toothbrush and washing gel.

By 8:30am Monday morning, 40 arrivals and 24 departure flights from Heathrow had been cancelled but Heathrow has reported that conditions are improving with the fog starting to lift.

At 10.30am we are still at our hotel with no definite word on when we may fly and around 40% of a total of 315 arrivals and departures have been cancelled during the day so far.

Though Heathrow is the worst affected other flights were grounded at Norwich, Leeds, Bradford, London City Airport and a few at Gatwick too.

It's still pretty chaotic and some airlines have chosen to rebook passengers on other flights and domestic passengers are being transported by coach.

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>> watch this space (or follow us on Twitter), as we will be posting regular updates! 

21 November 2011, 11.45 am. No more cancellations but the advice is to check with your airline before heading to the airport.

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