Oxford University lecturer forced to teach in airport lounge after British Airways chaos
AN OXFORD don left stranded by British Airways' Bank Holiday chaos was forced to give his lecture to students from an airport lounge.
Oxford University Senior Fellow Dr Anders Sandberg was left stranded by British Airways' IT failure
Oxford University Senior Fellow Dr Anders Sandberg was due to catch a flight to Madrid to give a talk to students at the Institute of Business Studies
But the knock-on effect of the airliner's IT failure saw his flight delayed on Saturday afternoon.
Instead Dr Sandberg gave the lecture “reviewing the methods of slowing ageing” by video link using Skype in front of hundreds of bemused fellow passengers at Heathrow Terminal 5 lounge.
He said: “My dad worked for a Scandinavian airline and so when I was younger my time was spent waiting at airports. So I took a quite phlegmatic approach to it.
“It was probably the first time anybody has given a lecture at a departure gate. Maybe we should have them more often.“
He was forced to give his lecture to students from an airport lounge
British Airways chief executive apologises for disruptions
It was probably the first time anybody has given a lecture at a departure gate
He said that he first knew something was wrong while he was waiting for his flight that morning and the gate numbers all slowly began to change.
Dr Sandberg, 44, added: “There was this moment when the gate numbers one by one started to go out.
"I realised then that I would not be making it to Madrid in time to give the lecture.
Dr Sandberg gave the lecture by video link using Skype in front of hundreds of bemused passengers
“So I thought OK I am really getting delayed here and it was obvious that even if the problem was fixed I was still not going to be able to make it.
"And then I decided that I would just have to do it from here.
“People were wondering what was going on when I started and were wondering what was I talking about with this lecture, talking about stem cells and ageing. It must have looked quite weird.”