Gatwick passengers forced to read flight information from white boards after information screens go down

Vodafone claims damaged fibre cable the cause of information systems outage at Gatwick

Passengers at Gatwick Airport have been forced to get their flight details from hand-drawn white boards after the information systems went down - with some people missing their flights as a result.

The problems began at 8.20am and have been blamed on Vodafone, which is responsible for IT support at the Airport. EasyJet claims that the outage has also affected its "auto bag drop desks" as well as information systems.

The staff at the white board, meanwhile, were connected to a control room over walkie-talkies in order to be able to provide ‘live updates'.

Passengers, not surprisingly, have not been impressed with Gatwick Airport's emergency measures.

"This tiny whiteboard is the only departures information in Gatwick Airport right now; every screen is offline. Utter chaos. This is a signature flourish at the end of a short trip that's been full of reminders of how badly the UK's infrastructure is crumbling. - at Gatwick Airport South Terminal," tweeted Rob Fahey, a disgruntled passenger.

Vodafone, meanwhile, within the hour claimed to have identified the cause of the problem. We have identified a damaged fibre cable which is used by Gatwick Airport to display flight information. Our engineers are working hard to fix the cable as quickly as possible. This is a top priority for us," Vodafone said in a statement.

Computing has contacted Gatwick for comment and will update this story accordingly

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