Gatwick: What are your rights if your flight is delayed or cancelled?
Gatwick Airport’s South Terminal has been heavily disrupted after a “suspected prohibited item” was discovered in luggage, leaving passengers in limbo.
Some passengers were reportedly left on planes that weren’t taking off, while others were stranded in the airport for hours after Gatwick made the announcement this morning.
Sussex Police said the explosive ordnance disposal team was being sent in “as a precaution” and a security cordon was put in place.
It now says the incident has been resolved and cleared – but warned there were still “some delays and cancellations”.
Gatwick Airport latest updates
The airport, which is the UK’s second busiest, was set to see off some 316 departing flights today, according to aviation analytics website Cirium.
But what are the rights of passengers if their flights are delayed or cancelled?
Your rights during delays
Your flight is covered by UK law if it departs from a UK airport, arrives at a UK airport on a UK or EU airline, or arrives at an EU airport on a UK airline.
When it comes to significant delays, UK law says airlines must provide you with care and assistance.
Significant delays are classed as:
- More than two hours for short-haul flights of under 1,500km (932 miles)
- More than three hours for medium-haul flights of 1,500km-3,500km (932-2,175 miles)
- More than four hours for long-haul flights of over 3,500km
Here’s what the law says the airline must provide you with until it is able to fly you to your destination:
- A reasonable amount of food and drink
- A means for you to communicate (often by refunding the cost of your calls)
- Accommodation, if you are re-routed the next day
- Transport to and from the accommodation (or your home, if you are able to return there)
It says this must be provided for you for however long delays last, irrespective of what has caused them.
Passengers facing delays have been handed blankets by staff at the airport
Airlines may not always be able to arrange care and assistance for all passengers during major disruptions directly, but the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says you can organise the things listed for yourself and then claim the cost back from your airline later if you keep every receipt and do not spend more than is deemed reasonable.
In other words, don’t splash out on things like alcohol and luxury hotels during your wait and expect to claim your money back later.
What are your rights if your flight is cancelled?
If your flight is cancelled, the airline must either give you a refund or book you on an alternative flight.
You can get your money back for all parts of a ticket you haven’t used, the CAA says.
If you have booked a return flight and the outbound leg is cancelled, for example, you can get the full cost of the return ticket back from your airline.
“If you are a transfer passenger and you have already completed part of your journey, you are also entitled to a flight back to your original departure point when your connecting flight is cancelled and you decide not to continue your journey,” it adds.
If you still want to travel, your airline must find you an alternative flight – whether it is the next available one, or a flight at an alternative, later date.
If another airline is flying significantly sooner than yours is able to offer, you may have the right to be booked onto a rival airline’s flight, but this has to be negotiated with the company.
On last-minute cancellations, Naveen Dittakavi, founder and chief executive of Next Vacay, said: “If you’re already at the airport once the flight is cancelled, the best thing you can do is stay calm – you are protected against many things that might go wrong.
“Try calling the airline helpline rather than waiting to speak directly with the airport staff. The helpline is often more flexible and may provide you with an e-credit or voucher, or flexibility to change your travel dates quickly.”
Can you get compensation?
In some cases, airlines may have to provide compensation if your flight arrives at its destination more than three hours late – but that is only if the delay is deemed to be your airline’s fault.
Disruptions caused by things deemed “extraordinary circumstances” are not eligible for compensation, according to the CAA.
A man has been jailed for life for murdering his son’s girlfriend after she returned home from the school run.
Officers from Dyfed-Powys Police were called to an address on Bigyn Road in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, on 5 July last year.
Sophie Evans, 30, had sustained 72 separate injuries on the outside of the body, “all but three of them new injuries”.
Richard Jones, who is now 50, believed he was “being taken advantage of financially” by Ms Evans and his son, with whom she was in a relationship.
While the purpose of Jones’s visit was “purely normal”, he confronted her on that morning about his suspicions and Ms Evans’s reaction was such that Jones “lost [his] temper”.
He subjected Ms Evans to “gross violence” before ultimately strangling her and leaving the property to run errands, including ordering a new bank card and buying pastries from a bakery.
Richard Jones. Pic: Dyfed-Powys Police
‘Last time on their school run’
During sentencing on Monday, the defendant kept his head bowed for most of the hearing.
He will have to serve at least 20 years behind bars before he can be considered for release by the parole board.
Swansea Crown Court heard Ms Evans was the mother of two young children.
Passing his sentence, Judge Geraint Walters said Ms Evans “had just taken her two children for the last time on their school run” prior to the attack.
“She wasn’t to know that when she parted company with them that morning,” he added.
The court heard the Jones believed he was being defrauded by Ms Evans and his son.
“There is clear evidence, that in the days leading up to this, that you had begun harbouring thoughts that Sophie Evans and your own son were in fact financially scamming you,” he said.
“What precisely brought about that view is difficult to determine.”
Judge Walters said Jones “lost [his] temper when [he] didn’t get the answer that [he] thought [he] deserved”.
He added that, having lost his temper, the defendant “subjected [Ms Evans] to gross violence over a period of time, before you ultimately extinguished her life by strangulation”.
The court was told in evidence that at the time of the attack, Ms Evans was wearing only a bath towel.
‘The rock of our family’
In a victim personal statement, Ms Evans’s sister Kerry Quinlan told the court she was “the rock of our family”.
She said Ms Evans was taken from them in a “senseless and cruel act”.
“Words cannot express fully how much of a loss this has been to her children,” she added.
“When they cry themselves to sleep wanting their mum, she isn’t there and never will be.”
Ms Quinlan added that Jones had “taken everything from us, all in the most despicable way possible”.
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Ms Evans’s partner at the time, and the defendant’s son, Jamie Davies, said in a victim personal statement, read on his behalf, that they had both “trusted” Jones, and that Ms Evans had even been planning the defendant’s 50th birthday.
“The thought of having to live my life without Sophie causes me extreme pain and heartache,” he added.
Prosecuting, Michael Jones KC said the offence was aggravated by the defendant’s previous convictions and the fact Ms Evans was murdered in her home.
In mitigation, David Elias KC said there was a “lack of premeditation”.
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Third man charged with murder over house fire in Bradford that killed mother and her three children
The family of pop star Liam Payne has criticised the media for causing “indescribable, lasting damage” in the wake of his death.
The singer, 31, died in October last year, after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina.
He was honoured with a video montage, played at Saturday night’s BRIT awards, celebrating his legacy – with clips including his time on X-Factor and during his time with One Direction. The band won seven BRIT awards before they split in 2016.
In a statement, released to the media after the tribute was played, his family called the death an “unspeakable tragedy”.
The family also criticised the “attention and speculation” in the press that caused “indescribable, lasting damage on the family, particularly on Liam’s son, who is trying to process emotions which no seven-year-old should have to experience”.
It said the family accepted the Court of Appeal’s decision to drop all charges in relation to Payne’s death.
One Direction pictured at the 2014 Brit Awards – the band won seven gongs during their time together. Pic: PA
One Direction, pictured in 2011. Pic: AP
Charges were dropped against three defendants: Payne’s friend Roger Nores, who had accompanied him during his trip to Buenos Aires; Gilda Martin, the manager of the Casa Sur Palermo Hotel where Payne died; and Esteban Grassi, the hotel’s main receptionist.
Two others are still facing prosecution for allegedly supplying Payne with drugs. Supplying drugs in Argentina carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
Toxicology tests revealed that before his death, he had traces of alcohol, cocaine, and a prescription antidepressant in his body. A postmortem ruled his cause of death as “polytrauma” from multiple injuries and internal and external bleeding.
‘Beautiful’ Brits tribute
After the video aired, Payne’s former band member Louis Tomlinson thanked the BRIT Awards and said: “Beautiful tribute. Miss you always, brother x.”
Awards host Jack Whitehall introduced the tribute to the singer and said: “He achieved so much in the short time that he was on this earth, and was not only a supremely gifted musician but an incredibly kind soul who touched the lives of everyone he came into contact with.
Themed tributes for singer Liam Payne were seen outside St. Mary’s Church on the day of his funeral.
Pic: Reuters
Fans sing One Direction around a candle-lit tribute for Liam Payne
“We have so many amazing memories with Liam here at The BRITs. So, tonight we celebrate his legacy and look back and remember, the remarkable Liam Payne.”
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