Follow That Mouse

It would appear that staff were not surprised when systems immediately started crashing and chaos rapidly spread through Heathrow’s new terminal 5 on its opening day, and having read the accounts it is not surprising to your Mouse, either.

The mere idea that just walking the staff round the terminal without getting a chance to use the equipment constitutes training is in itself a classic of modern organisational myopia.

The day even started badly the day before when the management suddenly decided not to proceed with fingerprinting at checkin but rely on photo ID checkins. From that moment, they were doomed. The computers which control the whole terminal and all its facilities simply did not work properly. Staff found their passes were rejected and they couldn’t get in. They couldn’t park their cars to get near the place. Passengers trying to use the rapid check in computer terminals found they didn’t work. The baggage system kept failing and bags going to the wrong places. Then there was a total failure of all the systems.

The lessons that: the staff need to be properly trained for every aspect of a huge new machine, and that you simply cannot do that quickly or on the cheap; and that you should always have manual backup systems because computers will always have days when they go wrong, are hardly new lessons and the shambolic farce that was heathrow yesterday was a national disgrace.

Heathrow is our gateway to the world. Yesterday people from every nation in the world saw what a chaotic, nonsensical, idiotic place Britain has become. They will take those images home with them, while they wait at home for their lost baggage. And they will tell everyone they know about their experiences. Well done, Bungling Airways.