A FORMER Mayor of Farnham, John Ward, has branded British Airways “a national embarrassment” after he was caught up in the IT failure at Heathrow at the weekend.

Mr Ward, a town and borough councillor, and his wife Gillian were set to fly to Rome at 10.45am on Saturday, May 27, ahead of a cruise in the Mediterranean to mark the end of his second mayoral year.

However, after a day of confusion, overcrowding and cancellations, the couple were forced to retreat home - without their luggage, which they have since discovered was sent to the Italian capital without them.

He said: “When things go wrong in any organisation it is often the case that one or more employees step up to the plate and lead by example but on Saturday no such heroes or heroines appeared.

“Elderly people in wheelchairs were stuck in the middle of the dense crowd of people trying to exit but no staff appeared to assist them. Distressed young mothers in tears with even more distressed children were just ignored by staff and had to be helped by fellow passengers.”

He added: “My overall impression was of staff, bewildered by lack of information and total lack of management leadership, just not being able to cope with what was a complete debacle.

“There needs to be a thorough enquiry, not only into the catastrophic IT failure, but also the collapse of BA management which left their passengers and staff confused, helpless and distressed.”