Roof collapse in T1
Those of you that work in Termainl 1 and have been in today will have seen the chaos caused by the wet weather. The roof in the departures lounge, close to Alpha Shopping collapsed under the strain of the heavy rain and submerged a section of the airside shopping area under around a foot of water. The departures lounge was closed for 90 minutes and pax that had already proceeded through security were escorted down B Pier. The arrivals area also suffered a similar problem, with the baggage reclaim area and arrivals hall also submerged in water and all arriving passengers into Terminal 1 had to be bussed to either T2 or T3 and collect their luggage from there. The majority of airside retail and catering outlets remained closed throughout the rest of the afternoon and into the evening as the area was cleared up. Only Starbucks and Boots were reopened and pax had to access the far side of the departure lounge by using the small passageway that runs behind Burger King. A chaotic situation that left many flights delayed, yet the consequencies could have been alot worse. Maybe this will open the eyes of the Senior management and push them into spending money on this ageing terminal. The whole place is in need of some investment. Time after time i have seen buckets of water placed under leaking roofs after a downpour and yet nothing has been done. Not to mention the atrocious state of the carpets, seating area's and gates. Today has proved the extent of neglect on basic care and maintenance and it's about time something was done about it.