British athletes have been left stranded in Budapest after the World Athletics Championship after nearly 1,000 flights into and out of the UK were cancelled.
According to reports, nearly 1,000 flights into and out of the UK were grounded or cancelled owing to a failure in the country’s air traffic control system on Monday, a group of roughly 40 athletes and staff from UK Athletics were forced to return to their hotel.
On Tuesday, Transport Secretary Mark Harper stated that “a defect of this magnitude had not occurred in a decade and that it would take some days to get… people to where they should be after hundreds of British holidaymakers’ travel plans were also disrupted.”
The technical error has been identified and addressed, according to Britain’s National Air Traffic Operations, but there was still work to be done to return to regular operation while they dealt with the disrupted planes.
The postponement comes after British athletes scored their joint-best performance at the World Championships ahead of next summer’s Olympics in Paris.
In the same vein, members of the Irish team have already been informed they must wait until Friday for a flight, with some choosing to find an alternative way home.
Steve Backley, a BBC pundit and three-time Olympic medalist, attempted to come back from Hungary by train, documenting his journey in a series of films posted on social media.
