Hundreds of workers at Heathrow's Terminal 5 started to brawl just hours after it opened, it emerged last night.
More than 30 baggage-handlers at the £4.3billion hub had to be pulled apart by security guards on Thursday.
And the farce at the "world class" terminal continued yesterday as 17 more fights broke out amongst T5 staff and passengers, including a fatality in the terminal's main restaurant when a pastry chef assaulted a man with a Pepper Mill. The attack was carried out with such force that the victim, a retired fishmonger from Leeds, suffered a brain hemorrhage and died at 02:00 hours this morning.
Eye witness, Mark Styles from Bideford in Devon, told our reporter,
"I have never seen anything like it. Due to the delay in our flight my wife and I decided to treat ourselves to a meal at the terminals much publicised, "Le mangeur heureux" . I had just finished ordering, 'cocktail de crevette rose' for two, and a bottle of fine wine, when a chef came running out of the kitchen and attacked an elderly customer with what looked like a baseball bat. It appeared totally unprovoked. He must have hit him hard because the old man's teeth were found on the roof of Terminal 4. I know things have not gone to plan at the airport but that is no reason to take it out on the passengers. To be honest the 'Jambon fumé et anneau d'ananas' was totally wasted on me after that."
However it appears things may not improve in the immediate future.
Talking to our Home Affairs correspondent British Airways spokesman, Nick Ganley said today,
"I can confirm that in the early hours of yesterday 84 year old Arthur Rowling died from a blow to the head at the West Middlesex Hospital in Hounslow. We would like to pass our condolences onto his wife and four children and say that the attack was regrettable. British Airways would also like to add that given the circumstances no charge will be made for the family meal which came to a total of £128:00 service not included."
When asked by our reporter if he could guarantee the safety of passengers against further attacks the spokesman replied,
"Obviously what happened was not acceptable. However it must be said that staff at Terminal 5 are under incredible stress at the moment and mistakes are inevitable. We would advise passengers to be vigilant at all times especially when talking to our luggage handlers. I must admit that, at the moment, much of our time is being spent breaking up fights amongst personnel. However when we have this situation under control I'm sure we will be able to address the other issues that seem to be concerning our customers such as the gas leak near Gate 15 and the unpleasant hostage situation on runway four."
