[size=55:16zn04gk]novinite 19 December 2010

Bulgarians Stranded at Heathrow Airport without Food

A number of Bulgarian passengers are stranded at the London Heathrow airport, their relatives inform Sunday.

The passengers, flying with the Bulgarian carrier "
Bulgaria Air"
have not been provided food or water and are sleeping on the airport's floor and on their luggage. The area where the Bulgarians are, reportedly, does not even have benches.

When contacted, "
Bulgarian Air"
representatives have stated they did not provide food and water because the passengers did not have the needed vouchers. The vouchers, however, must be distributed by the company.

The passengers are at the airport at their own expenses and it is unclear when they will be able to take off over heavy snow in London.

Admin wrote:

[size=55:msf1jo8i]novinite 19 December 2010

Bulgarians Stranded at Heathrow Airport without Food

A number of Bulgarian passengers are stranded at the London Heathrow airport, their relatives inform Sunday.

The passengers, flying with the Bulgarian carrier "
Bulgaria Air"
have not been provided food or water and are sleeping on the airport's floor and on their luggage. The area where the Bulgarians are, reportedly, does not even have benches.

When contacted, "
Bulgarian Air"
representatives have stated they did not provide food and water because the passengers did not have the needed vouchers. The vouchers, however, must be distributed by the company.

The passengers are at the airport at their own expenses and it is unclear when they will be able to take off over heavy snow in London.

Bulgaria Air treating their PAYING passengers like cattle - what a surprise.

This is just absolutely dreadful The Bulgarian Airline should be ashamed of themselves to treat people in this manner - I expect some of the other airlines will soon rally round to help before long.

The report was from The Novinite 19 December 2010 What are talking about Heathrow airport I have flown from Heathrow Airport many times and this is a fantastic airport all the mod cons including very comfortable seats. There is no way they would allow this to happen in the UK Someone has blown this out of proportion - The report from the from the novinite 19 December 2010 surly got this wrong

Oddy

Admin wrote:

[size=55:4mac6yok]novinite 19 December 2010

Bulgarians Stranded at Heathrow Airport without Food

A number of Bulgarian passengers are stranded at the London Heathrow airport, their relatives inform Sunday.

The passengers, flying with the Bulgarian carrier "
Bulgaria Air"
have not been provided food or water and are sleeping on the airport's floor and on their luggage. The area where the Bulgarians are, reportedly, does not even have benches.

When contacted, "
Bulgarian Air"
representatives have stated they did not provide food and water because the passengers did not have the needed vouchers. The vouchers, however, must be distributed by the company.

The passengers are at the airport at their own expenses and it is unclear when they will be able to take off over heavy snow in London.

The following text was taken from Bulgaria Air website, so what you have posted above Admin surely cannot be true ::

We guarantee high standards of quality of service at all stages of your trip with Bulgaria Air – from the moment of booking and purchase of your ticket, until your successful landing and picking up the baggage at the airport. To make your flight real fun

PS Could they be referred to the Trading Standards for misrepresentation

Are you having a laugh willowsend do you really believe that BG air give a damn

bigsavak wrote:

Are you having a laugh willowsend do you really believe that BG air give a damn

I copied and pasted the text from the Bulgarian Air website, so I'm not having a laugh they are, and you are right they do not care a damn
If the passengers ever get off the ground I am sure they will be treated to mince pies and champagne :Ch:on the flight and the trolly dollies will
wish everybody :Xmas3:and :M3: :Kilt:

I was listening to the news today and they say that an agreement with the EU means that airlines have to supply food and accommodation so I'm sure if these people can get to talk to someone who knows the law they will be ok.

Forty Bulgarians stranded three days at Heathrow, 'abandoned' by Bulgaria Air



A group of 40 Bulgarians has been stranded at Heathrow Airport in London for the past three days and forced to sleep on the terminal floor, private Bulgarian television channel bTV reported.

Transportation chaos caused by the snow in the UK has affected thousands of people, but this group of Bulgarians say that they have been 'abandoned' by their carrier Bulgaria Air, the bTV said. Stoil Ivanov, who has been at the terminal since December 17 with a group of about 20 Bulgarians that eventually grew to 40 people, says that no Bulgaria Air representative ever offered them an explanation.

According to Ivanov, "
they were the only group of people left by the carrier to sleep at the terminal"
, although conflicting accounts have appeared in British media about that.

The latest information on the group is that a flight to Bulgaria is finally scheduled for the evening of December 20.

No immediate respite, however, is expected for thousands affected by the cold snap over the UK as further disruptions to their Christmas travel are expected because of a new blizzard over the UK. This will bring up to 20cm of snow in some areas, according to the Met Office.

BAA has apologised to those forced to sleep in the terminal but transport secretary Philip Hammond said aviation was a "
safety-first business"
, the BBC reported.

Colin Matthews, CEO of BAA, said he was "
very disappointed at how Heathrow had let people down"
, British media reported, and that he would launch an inquiry into the chaos. He also promised his own "
forensic analysis"
and review of equipment and procedure.

This is really unbelieveable. Heathrow is an international disgrace, a few hours of snow on Saturday has completely crippled the world's busiest airport for what will be days, the week before Christmas. BAA Chairman Wille Walsh and his so called "
snow team"
should offer their resignation. The T5 debacle was bad enough, but when it completely grinds to a halt, something is seriously wrong, last year "
Heathrow was the only major UK airport not to close in the winter"
. So what's different this year? We had far worse snow last year than what happened on Saturday. So where has the "
extra £500,000 for snow fighting equipment"
gone then? useless like the rest of this god forsaken country!!

Boris has hit the nail on the head! During the 2nd world war the UK was a giant airfield.The planes flew and the weather was just as it is now the pilots had a ball of string and a scouts compass but they managed to do a fine job for us all,The trains ran as well good old steam bring it back I say! leaves on the line snow that did not stop them!!I believe some backbone needed!! All these politicians trying to score points off each other when their true attitude is "
we are all right Jack"
in their second homes spending unlimited on the heating off the back of the taxpayers who see their taxes dwindle away on these greedy self centered **** who never listen to the people who elected them £7 billion to help save Ireland that would have bought lots of snow clearing equipment! where does the road tax go not on the roads. Council Tax escalating for less services disgusting come on it is time to say enough government greed LISTEN TO WHAT THE VOTERS NEED AND DESERVE.

nu2bg wrote:

This is really unbelieveable. Heathrow is an international disgrace, a few hours of snow on Saturday has completely crippled the world's busiest airport for what will be days, the week before Christmas. BAA Chairman Wille Walsh and his so called "
snow team"
should offer their resignation. The T5 debacle was bad enough, but when it completely grinds to a halt, something is seriously wrong, last year "
Heathrow was the only major UK airport not to close in the winter"
. So what's different this year? We had far worse snow last year than what happened on Saturday. So where has the "
extra £500,000 for snow fighting equipment"
gone then? useless like the rest of this god forsaken country!!

:Howdy:nu2bg
If I understand correctly, because of the snow of last year BAA at Heathrow ordered 6 new snow clearing machines from a foreign country, two of those machines I believe arrived last Friday and were put into use at once. The 4 remaining machines are held up in the country of manufacture (and guess what) because of the snow and they can't get through :C:
I fully agree with you that Willie Walsh should resign, but I think that there are far more important reasons why he should go than for something he can't control, that white stuff that falls out of the sky and on this forum

I am, like many many others, angry about the grinding to a halt situation in this country, but let's be fair folks nearly the whole of Europe (including Sofia) is in the same boat and even if Heathrow and all the other affected Airports had no snow at all, there would still be complaints and no thoughts given to the crews and planes that are stuck on foreign soil and can't take off because they cannot land
While writing this, another thing crossed my mind. A pilot and co-pilot are in the cockpit with up to 400 live bodies behind them, a very big responsibility, so imagine the aftermarth of a crash if those pilots took any chances. As for the 40 odd Bulgarians who allegedly had to sleep on the floor for 3 nights, I am sure that sleeping on the floor or having the chance of being on a crashed plane, there isn't an option. we all know the answer, NO CONTEST

And meandmine, whilst I agree with a lot of what you have posted I do think you are a bit :OffTopic:as you can appreciate it's all about the SNOW :Snow window:How about starting a new topic WHAT THE VOTERS WANT AND DESERVE, just a thought ???

This Country really is a joke, we cant even keep airports clear of a bit of snow, it may be our worst weather for so many years but just look at places like Finland, Norway etc they get this kind of weather every year and take it in their stride, it is about time that we dragged ourselves into the 21 st century and purchased equipment to deal with this kind of situation, I expect there are plenty of other Countries who could sell us some second hand outfits that they updated years ago

Gimp wrote:

This Country really is a joke, we cant even keep airports clear of a bit of snow, it may be our worst weather for so many years but just look at places like Finland, Norway etc they get this kind of weather every year and take it in their stride, it is about time that we dragged ourselves into the 21 st century and purchased equipment to deal with this kind of situation, I expect there are plenty of other Countries who could sell us some second hand outfits that they updated years ago

Quite right, gimp. I do believe I read somewhere that Finland's airports have not been closed for 35 years. Despite what BAA and BA say, they are still raking it in and they can make provisions for this sort of weather. They did expect it - it was forecast.

Gimp wrote:

This Country really is a joke, we cant even keep airports clear of a bit of snow, it may be our worst weather for so many years but just look at places like Finland, Norway etc they get this kind of weather every year and take it in their stride, it is about time that we dragged ourselves into the 21 st century and purchased equipment to deal with this kind of situation, I expect there are plenty of other Countries who could sell us some second hand outfits that they updated years ago

:Howdy:Gimp
Yes, in many ways this Country really is a joke, but in certain situations you have to look at a bigger picture. You've hit the nail on the head when you say
Quote:- it may be our worst weather for so many years, so that is why we are not equipped to deal with such situations, the Country cannot afford to spend loads of money on machinery just In case it snows
Yes, you are right about Countries like Finland and Norway, they do take it in their stride when they get this kind of weather, that is because it is part of their culture and what they expect, but of course the same cannot be said for our culture and what we expect, it is not like for like
I have friends in Norway and Iceland (in fact my Icelantic friend has a house just north of Dobrich) and they tell me that their snow season is between the beginning of November and the end of April, that is nearly half a year, so it's no wonder that they are well equipped to cope with those months
As for buying second hand machinery, I think that is definately a no go situation, can you imagine the outcry from us all if the Government bought a load of snow clearing equipment and it didn't snow for the next ten years. We would all be up in arms accusing them of wasting our money when it could have gone to perhaps saving lives etc. It's a no win situation

My Wife and I were in Bulgaria in January this year and on the day we were due to fly out of Varna we couldn't. We woke up that morning to find that over 1mtr of snow had fallen in the night, we had run down all our food stock and there were major problems with electricity and water being cut off. The bits of food that we had put in the bin I recovered and we put snow in a saucepan to get water. The Airport was closed for three day's and the road between Kavarna and Varna was almost impassable, but we managed it after three hours, I have never gripped a steering wheel so tight before, and we got on the only flight out of Varna, but we survived and we are here to tell the story

This present snow situation is not just a problem in the UK, it has gripped the whole of Europe with many Airports like Paris, Amsterdam, Moscow, Sofia and Budapest etc all having the same problems as Heathrow and other UK airports. Another down side to this situation are crews getting to work. I have a Niece who works for British Airways and on Saturday it took her five hours to get from Slough to Heathrow, terminal 5, that is just 10 miles, so we can all moan and groan as much as we like, but it won't change anything as what is falling out of the sky is an act of God. :: [size=150:qi071m91]Merry Christmas

willowsend wrote:

the Country cannot afford to spend loads of money on machinery just In case it snows

If the country can afford to spend millions needlessly on bonuses for bank bosses, it can afford to spend millions on necessary machinery for clearing the snow. This is not the first year.