Thunderstorms disrupt Gatwick and Heathrow as hundreds of flights delayed or cancelled

Thunderstorms have caused severe delays to hundreds of flights at Heathrow and Gatwick airports, leaving passengers stuck on grounded planes for hours in the scorching heat. Overnight, downpours and thunderstorms lit up the skies of London after back-to-back days of 30C-plus weather as the UK and much of Europe experienced a record-breaking heatwave . The stormy weather delayed more than 600 flights due to land or depart from Heathrow and Gatwick, some for more than six hours, while dozens more have been cancelled. One flight from Gatwick to Antalya scheduled to land in Turkey at 11:50am is now due in at 6pm. The UK’s air traffic control service, Nats, said disruption was “expected to continue through the rest of the day” due to “forecasted severe weather across the south-east of England”. Some travellers expressed their frustration on social media. One said they had been stuck on a grounded British Airways plane at Heathrow from 7am until noon. Another person said their daughter has been sat on an easyJet plane at Gatwick for four hours. According to flight tracker FlightAware, at least 367 flights due to land or take off from Heathrow were delayed on Saturday and 352 in and out of Gatwick. Some travellers have been stuck abroad in the sweltering heat. Twenty-nine-year-old Adam Joseph told BBC News that he had been stranded at Venice airport without air conditioning after his Gatwick-bound flight was delayed for at least four hours. …