Gatwick Airport water outage was 'unprecedented'

The water problems at Gatwick Airport that saw toilets and restaurants forced to close was "unprecedented", a travel expert has said.

Passengers faced long queues for toilets after the major supply outage at the UK's second busiest airport on Sunday morning.

SES Water, the firm that supplies the airport, said that a power failure at Bough Beech Water Treatment Works caused the problem, which also affected homes in parts of Surrey and West Sussex, including Redhill, Crawley, Edenbridge and Crockham Hill.

Facilities at the airport returned to normal by Monday morning, but travel journalist Lisa Francesca Nand said that the airport may have to include similar events in its emergency planning, with water supply problems becoming more common in the South East.

Francesca Nand, who was due to board a flight from Gatwick Airport on Monday, told BBC Radio Sussex: "It's unprecedented, this has never happened.

"The airport authorities were probably wondering what to do, focusing on getting everyone through safely and onto their flights which, thankfully, weren't too affected.

"There's contingency plans for electrical problems. They have back-up generators. There are plans for when computers go down, when air traffic control and security gates have gone down.

"Water? I don't know what the contingency plan is, unless they start filling up barrels."

Passengers arriving for flights on Sunday told the BBC that there was "nothing to wash their hands with" and described the situation as "pretty grubby".

On Monday morning, Gatwick Airport said that water supply had fully returned to the airport.

"All toilet facilities are open, as well as food and beverage outlets and the airport is operating as normal," it added.

SES Water said: "We know this incident has caused disruption for customers and our partners and we are sorry.

"We thank everyone for their patience while our teams worked to restore supplies as quickly and safely as possible."

The water company added that as the network returns to normal, there may be some discolouration or slower flows.

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