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Toilet roll shortage delays British Airways flight for five hours

A British Airways flight was reportedly delayed for five hours due to a lack of toilet roll and other items.

The Barbados-bound aircraft was due to take off from Gatwick at around 1.40pm on Sunday but did not leave until after 7pm.

The flight was delayed because the Boeing 777 had not been prepared satisfactorily, forcing the airline to assemble a new ground crew to restock the likes of toilet paper and headphones.

A number of passengers took to Twitter to complain about the delay due to a shortage of toilet rolls and the wrong headphones.

The aircraft was due to depart at 1.40pm but did not leave Gatwick until 6.51pm.

It arrived at Bridgetown just before midnight, five-and-a-half hours later than scheduled.

Under European legislation on flight delays, each of the travellers is entitled to compensation of £520 – or €600.

British Airways spokesman told Metro.co.uk: “We are sorry customers were delayed after some of the many items needed for the flight weren’t loaded on to the aircraft.

“We gave customers refreshment vouchers so they could get something to eat and drink in the terminal and we got them away on their holidays as soon as we could.”

Marius Fermi, UK marketing manager at flight compensation company AirHelp, calculated that BA could owe up to £153,746 in compensation charges to the affected passengers under EC261 regulations.

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