Thursday, 4:30 PM
In London, Massachusetts travelers and others wait it out
By Alana Semuels, Globe correspondent
LONDON - Massachusetts residents waiting to leave Heathrow Airport, like their Logan brethren, were seeing delays as well with severe security and other restrictions slowing flights.
Donna Tourville, of Palmer, had her flight delayed three hours as she and her family tried to return home from a cruise around Ireland, Scotland, and England.
Worse still, her tour bus was forced to drop her family far away from the terminal because of traffic congestion and closed roads around the airport.
"Everybody has helped us today," said husband Michael Tourville. "They're under stress and they've done their job well."
Rob Gray of Wayland had already been travelling 14 hours from Sri Lanka when he arrived at the chaos around Heathrow. His connecting flight to Boston had been delayed, so he camped out on the floor, watching frazzled passengers walk by.
For Gray, this was nothing. In Sri Lanka, bombs went off in the town where he was staying, killing two policemen.
"I don't think twice about travelling," he said. "Something could
happen anywhere."
"It's a bummer," said Alicia Ross of Melrose, who waited out the delay with a pint of beer with her husband and son.
After hearing reports on the news about the foiled plot, the coulple considered not coming to the airport at all, but decided "sooner or later, we have to go home."
"You never know what is going to happen," she said. "You just have to
live your life."
For others bound for Boston, the delay was more than just an inconvenience.
"It's kind of ruined our trip," said John Mao, a biotechnology pharmacist from Medford who was traveling with his two children, ages 12 and 14.
They arrived at the airport five hours early, and were preparing to check their laptop with their luggage and put their wallets in clear plastic bags, as all passengers were required to do.
Most U.S.-bound flights continue to take off from Heathrow today, but
flights to and from European cities were cancelled.
Christian and Gitte Knudsen from Aarhus, Denmark, found a quiet corner in the busy airport and waited, hoping flights in Europe would resume.
"They told us they hoped it would be possible," Knudsen said. "We'll
just have to wait and see."
