HEADING-for-the-sun East Lancashire holidaymakers found themselves stuck in the heat at Manchester airport at the weekend as more than 75,000 people were caught up in long delays after the national flight control computer crashed.

Average delays of five hours were the norm, with many passengers having to wait overnight into Sunday to get flights.

Passengers on some flights diverted to Manchester were unable to disembark and waited on the tarmac at Manchester for some hours before they could resume their journeys.

Burnley-based travel agent Althams put many vehicles on standby at Manchester because they simply did not know when in-coming flights would arrive.

The situation was the same at other airports throughout the country, with the log-jam having an even bigger effect on flights returning to Britain.

Lancashire Evening Telegraph journalist David Ayrton, of Burnley, returned from the Greek Isle of Kos early yesterday and faced a 10 hour delay, plus an hour's wait for luggage when the flight eventually touched down in Manchester.

He said: "It was absolute pandemonium at Kos. The airport was choked up with people, with queues stretching into the roadway."

A Manchester airport spokesman said it had brought in many extra staff to cope with the extra demand -- and set up extra TVs so waiting passengers could see the England v Germany match.

He added that the situation had returned to normal today.