Stansted Airport

My nearest airport is Luton however I planned to attend a wedding of a close friend from University and the flights to the City of Derry airport were from Stansted. Yesterday I drove there at half past 2 and got there at quarter to 4, my flight being at 4.50pm with Ryanair. Stansted airport is one of the BAA group, along with Heathrow, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Southampton.

Ryanair makes you check in BEFORE you get to the airport, which is great if you have no baggage to put in, and so I proceeded straight to the security doors. HOWEVER... as I approached I saw a queue. Typical, I thought, a busy London airport and everything is going slowly. I didn't expect to turn a corner and see the queue continue down the length of the airport where I proceeded to join in disbelief. 'What's going on?' I asked the people around me. The response was a series of shrugs and a common shaking of heads amongst the fellow passengers, which turned into anticipation every time an annoucement began only to say that all flights have been suspended until further notice. No screens around and no information. I proceeded to go on to Twitter where I read that there had been a security breach and that all flights were suspended and the departure lounge had been evacuated. At least someone knew something and I informed those around me. 1 hour later and, after numerous updates from people on Twitter, we were told that the security area was now clear and 're-processing' would start. Almost immediately, airport staff shouted about priority boarding on 2 Ryanair flights to Germany and somewhere else. This gave me, and others, the indication that flights that would be boarding would be called and so people would have some idea of what was going on. I was wrong. For the next 2 hours the queue, which became most of the front of the airport, turned into what I would describe as like the front of a concert with barely any breathing space, incredible heat and no way in or out. It stretched for metres to both my right and left and there was no way of seeing the back or front. And this crowd had parents with young children, there were elderly people and those with disabilities yet NOTHING was done to help them whatsoever. We moved a couple of foot every 10 or 15 minutes which meant simply passing the front of an Accessorize store front took nearly an hour. No announcements apart from the irregular 'thank you for your cooperation' and still a reliance on simply people talking on Twitter- I even managed to befriend a couple of people who had 'Tweeted' me about their similar frustration who ended up standing very near to me. They had beers which was a small slice of luxury for them. I was stood in the middle of a large Spanish group of whom proceeded to shout every sentence they said- perhaps the fact I was on my own with no-one to really talk to made this all the more infuriating. Slowly as you reached the front of the crowd, it filtered into a single-file line where our boarding passes were checked by only TWO MEN!!!! (Think this crowd was around 1000 people). My boarding pass showed the 'green light' - which you would think meant everything was fine- and I joined the next queue to walk through security. I had already pre-packed my toilletries in clear plastic bags and all were under 100ml. I carefully placed my bag (which I had measured owing the the extreme emails you receive from Ryanair outlining that should these be more than 50cm in width you will get charged £40) and my jacket which I had removed and my two small sandwich bags of cosmetics. 'Are you travelling on your own?' I was asked. 'Yes' I replied. 'You can only have one bag of cosmetics then.' Anger bubbled up inside me and I felt my face get hot. I proceeded to argue/ whine so much about how it weighed less than a letter, I had queued for 3 hours, I had packaged them myself, etc...that the security man simply said 'OK go on through.' I breathed a sigh of relief and walked through the scanner which did not beep which was nice. I saw my new Twitter friend as she walked through and we both laughed weakly about our experience so far. As she picked up her bag I realised mine was not there. I could see it, though, sat in a different section. It had been moved to the area to be checked again. Great. What was the problem? I had two clear bags of toilletries. A kind young guy helped me distribute them into an 'airport bag' (I couldn't see a difference) and stuffed into one bag which didn't even shut. Fine.



I was through! I could see the bar glistening- I was going to treat myself to a gin and tonic as I knew my flight would probably have been delayed for a couple of hours and so I thought I'd buy myself Look magazine and chill out. Perhaps I'd meet back up with my Twitter friend and her pals for a drink and a venting session over the trauma we had been through. I walked up to the screens, where countless faces were peering up to, and frowned. Where was my flight? It wasn't even listed. The 16.50 Ryanair flight wasn't listed....something was up. I looked around and, of course, there is no information desk or any sign of someone working at the airport. I spot two policemen who tell me there is no-one really to ask but to keep an eye on the screens as soon it would come up. The time is now 7pm. I sat there for 10 minutes feeling very confused and proceeded to try and find someone to help. I walked around aimlessly for a few minutes and found a woman in a high-vis jacket trying to help a group of people. I walked over and waited patiently for her to become free to which she proceeded to try and walk off but I quickly ran in front of her. I asked her politely why my flight was not listed. 'If it's not listed it's gone' she answered. I started to panic and asked her how could it have gone? We've all been stuck in a crowd that didn't move, there were no announcements?? 'We're a no-announcement policy airport I'm afraid.' Where you may have read in books about how you can literally feel 'blood boil' is exactly how I then began to feel. It took all the energy in the world to not grab this lady by the head and shake her. Instead, I did the typical thing. I burst into tears.

As the woman walked off I walked aimlessly over to a chair and collapsed down on it. People looked over at me with odd expressions as I smeared my mascara further and further over my face with tears streaming down. When calmer I walked over to another airport worker where I tried to beg for help but simply sobbed again. He pointed to a desk and told me to go over there. I walked over and was told to wait where a lady would take me, and others, back through to the main part of the airport where we could speak to the Ryanair helpdesk. In disbelief, we followed her on a long walk around the departure lounge, through some security doors and then found ourselves at baggage reclaim where we walked through 'Nothing to declare' (although I wanted to declare that I was ready to hurt everyone at the airport) and I was back at the start. A friendly Irishman bantered with me about how ridiculous it was and I followed him silently to the desk. But....the queue for the helpdesk was 2 hours long. Because they do not do announcements.

I couldn't do it. I walked to the bar, bought two bottles of Peroni and downed them. I looked on the internet to find flights to Belfast from Stansted and all showed a price of over £200. I sighed, called the bride and explained then called my boyfriend and he picked me up. While I should have been drinking champagne and listening to comical speeches at this moment of time, I am sat writing this blog.