RADAR RAGE:BERNICE HARRISON, who was stranded in Rome this week after a holiday due to the radar breakdown at Dublin airport, describes the experience
IT WAS A bad sign when the check-in guy in Rome got up from his desk and fled last Wednesday evening. For 20 minutes he had tried to field questions, but he wasn't, he explained in broken English, from Aer Lingus and he had no information.
All he knew was that our 8.15pm flight to Dublin was cancelled. We could try the nearly-full Belfast flight leaving at 9pm or - and this was the really scary bit for our family of four on the way home from holidays - "maybe come back in the morning?" Cue a scurry to join the too-long Belfast line.
News started to trickle in about closed airports and radars - not from airport staff but through the folks back home via mobile phones.
A woman arrived with a stack of badly photocopied notices from Aer Lingus - and then she legged it.
We could, we read, dial a 1800 number or book the next available flight by logging on to the website (from a queue in an airport? How exactly?) and any expenses incurred should be taken up with our insurers. The message was clear - you're on your own.
The ground services desk couldn't help but gave me an Aer Lingus number - and not the dreaded 1800 one. "How did you get this number madam?" sniped the guy who answered - not the most helpful approach.
He booked us on the 11.55am flight for the following morning. We spent the night at an airport hotel - great excitement for the kids, murder on the post-holiday credit card - and arrived back at check-in at 9am the following morning.
Several more hours later (including two hours on the tarmac at Rome Airport) we finally took off, landing in Dublin at 7.15pm.