Gatwick passengers stranded as flights leave without them

Would-be holidaymakers braved hours of queues to check in to flights and drop their baggage with some left stranded after their flights left without them.

The issue affected people all over the world and cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike said it was caused by a "defect" in one of its software updates which hit Windows operating systems.

It also affected Southern and Thameslink rail services and e-ticket gate failures led to long queues at Brighton Station.

Queues at Brighton Station (Image: The Argus) Dean Seddon waited for more than three and a half hours at Gatwick on what was the last day of term before the summer holidays for many schoolchildren.

Mr Seddon started queueing at 6am to check in for a trip with his social media training company to Miami, Florida, ahead of their scheduled departure at 10am with Norse Atlantic Airways.

“There are just people everywhere, there must be 400 people in this queue for the check-in desk I’m at. It’s just Bedlam,” the 42-year-old said.

“It’s one of those things where you kind of know we’re not going to fly, but you don’t want to leave because you don’t know."

Mr Seddon said there had been some people getting “agitated” in the queue but overall travellers had remained calm.

Queues to check in at Gatwick (Image: Emran El-Badawi)

Philippa Budgen was due on a Vueling flight to Bilbao from Gatwick this morning.

She arrived more than two hours before it was due to depart to drop off her bag.

Ms Budgen said: "There was absolutely no information. I checked and the aircraft had left."

Serge Poliakoff, from Vienna, waited two hours to check in and drop his baggage at Gatwick for his Wizz Air flight.

The firm, which normally charges customers to check in at airports, waived the fee as its online systems were down.

One of the first flights to be cancelled was an EasyJet round trip from Gatwick to Berlin.

The airline’s operations control told passengers: “We’re sorry that your flight has been cancelled.

“This is due to some IT system issues that are affecting multiple airports across Europe”

Peter Kyle, the new Science Secretary, said government was working swiftly to understand the outage

Some GPs in Sussex were affected, including those run by Adur Health Partnership (AHP).

In a statement issued around 9am, AHP, which runs GP services across parts of Shoreham and Southwick, said: "We are sorry to announce that our practice has been affected by the worldwide IT outage today. Our clinical system is down.

"We are currently cancelling all routine appointments for today and calling/messaging all the patients to let them know.

"Please only call the surgery if our clinical need is urgent.

"We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused. As soon as we have any update, we will announce it."

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Science Secretary and MP for Hove and Portslade Peter Kyle said government departments were working "seamlessly" together to understand the outages and "respond appropriately and swiftly".

Vueling was contacted for comment.