After landing he and his passengers - along with thousands of others - were told they would simply have to wait.

Inside the terminal, confusion reigned. The first indication that all was not well had come at around 11am when customers trying to access the company’s website to check in or view arrival times were greeted by a single word: “ERROR”.

Ominous though it was, there was no way the message could have prepared them for the full extent of the misery they would have to endure.

At Heathrow and Gatwick, passengers had noticed that BA staff at the check-in desks were taking down details with pen and paper, rather than typing them into the company’s system. Behind the scenes, and unbeknown to the thousands of passengers preparing to fly away for a bank holiday break, the airline’s crucial IT systems had collapsed.

After an eleven-hour flight from Rio, Captain Wearing was told to park until a gate became available.

During the wait of more than three and a half hours passengers read on their phones of the global IT disruption which had left all of BA’s London outbound flights cancelled and thousands of passengers’ holiday plans in tatters.