Dawn O’Porter is trying to get back to England from Spain (Picture: hotpatooties/Instagram/Getty)
Dawn O’Porter is one of the hundreds of thousands of passengers caught up in the travel delay chaos following a technical fault with the UK’s air traffic control system.
Computers went down in a network-wide outage on Bank Holiday Monday, causing more than 500 flights to be cancelled.
Despite the National Air Traffic Services (Nats) saying it had ‘identified and remedied’ the technical issue on Monday afternoon, nearly one million people had been due to travel in and out of the UK yesterday.
On Monday afternoon, Dawn, 44, took to Instagram to share her frustrations from Spain and ask for advice.
‘Anyone with any knowledge know if there is any chance of landing at Gatwick today? Should I go through security or not? THAT IS THE QUESTION,’ she asked.
‘On my own with the kids so deffo don’t want to be stuck there for the night. Obvs no one here knows anything,’ the presenter and author added.
The author and presenter initially asked for advice from the airport (Picture: hotpatooties/Instagram)
She was travelling back with her two sons (Picture: hotpatooties/Instagram)
‘Sorry for everyone travelling today. Such bull***t.’
Dawn is married to Bridesmaids and The IT Crowd star Chris O’Dowd, 43, with whom she shares two sons – Art, eight, and six-year-old Valentine.
Four hours later, she updated her followers in the comments, writing: ‘Looks like I’ll be in Mallorca for a while. What a s**t show. Thanks everyone. I hope you all get home OK.’
In an extremely relatable note, she shared: ‘I’m heading back to the island to find wine.’
Followers sharing their situations in the comments weren’t faring well either, with one sharing: ‘We’ve been sat on the plane on the runway at Palma airport for 3 hours 😩’
Another fan was stuck sitting on the tarmac in Cofu, Greece, six hours ahead of their flight’s updated slot and after the current crew would have to be deboarded.
‘Don’t go through security!! We wish we hadn’t. And really, really, really wish they hadn’t boarded us,’ she added.
Her next Instagram update last night was rather more resigned as she simply typed out for a screenshot she shared on her grid: ‘I live in Mallorca now.’
‘Thanks @easyjet for cancelling our flight and offering LITERALLY no way to get home for at least a week. Can’t wait to recommend you to all my friends on Instagram,’ she posted in the comments.
People wait near check-in desks at Gatwick Airport on August 28 (Picture: Getty)
BBC Radio 1 DJ Jordan North has meanwhile been stuck at Malaga airport where he shared the devastating update that they’d ‘ran out of beer at the terminal’.
The subsequent chaos has now affected more than 1,200 flights and is expected to last potentially until the weekend.
This is due to the magnitude of the cancellations yesterday and a knock-on effect into Tuesday, compounded with the already busy flights this week as the summer holidays start to draw to a close.
Metro.co.uk has contacted easyJet for comment.
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The presenter was asking for advice on Instagram.