200 BWIA passengers stranded By ASHA WILLIAMS , Express 05.05.03 ALMOST 200 BWIA passengers in Barbados, London and Trinidad were left stranded when technical problems on one of the aircraft caused at least two flights to London to be cancelled over the weekend. However, assurances were given by BWIA spokesman Clint Williams yesterday that affected passengers, most of whom have been accommodated at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, would be able to obtain flights from today. He also said the aircraft experiencing problems is expected to be in service by this evening. Williams said technical problems were discovered when the flight, BW 900, arrived in Barbados on Saturday afternoon. The company's airbus specialist detected the problem, after which a trouble-shooting team, which included the company's vice-president maintenance and BWIA CEO, Conrad Aleong, was set up to deal with the problem. The part required for the aircraft, A340, had to be sourced and was reportedly flown in from Toronto, Williams said. "There has been considerable delay," he said, indicating that the part was both specialised and expensive. "We are confident, now that we have the part, that the aircraft will be back up and running," Williams said. He said: "We have sourced back-up aircraft," adding that at least two flights, leased from another carrier, would be on stream tomorrow to pick up the slack. Williams said re-routing was done where possible, but this was difficult as the "other carriers were quite full". A few passengers were able to be accommodated on flights connecting to London through New York and London. Yesterday afternoon at Piarco International Airport, two BWIA passengers ? English nationals Mark Hersheson and Sarah Stebbing ? were unable to withhold their anger. Stebbing shouted at the BWIA counter clerk and demanded to see management, when told the flight was cancelled. She said they were in Tobago and arrived at Piarco to get a connecting flight to London. That flight, BW 3800, was expected to depart Piarco to arrive at Heathrow at 9.30 am today. Hersheson expressed anger that he was not told of the flight situation in Tobago, saying they would have preferred to spend another night on that island. "I've been fed information that was incorrect," an angry Hersheson said. "They made no efforts to give us any information that the flight was not flying," he said, adding that he and Stebbing were not told anything by BWIA staff at Piarco. However, he said they were told they would be accommodated at Hilton Trinidad. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.cso.gov.tt TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************