Marooned "Terminal Children"

In one of international aviation's biggest jams yet, tens of thousands of passengers were stranded for up to five days at Europe's airports last week. Many Americans traveling to Europe on cut-rate flights found that there were not enough bargain seats to accommodate the heavy crush heading home. Others were held up by a slowdown of 2,500 French air traffic controllers. Their action snarled traffic across Europe, but the worst congestion was in Britain and France:

BRITAIN The British press dubbed them the "Terminal Children." Thousands of North Americans waited for up to a week at Heathrow and Gatwick airports to get cheap seats, either on Laker Airways or other lines that offer a limited number of stand-by fares.

"In the cause of hygiene," boomed the p.a. at Gatwick, "we ask that waiting passengers not leave their cups and cutlery on the floor." Gatwick's beige linoleum quickly disappeared under a carpet of bright beach blankets and polyester sleeping bags. Bodies were everywhere--standing, sitting, lying on the floor. The wait for toilets was 20 minutes and for a cup of tea, half an hour. The gift shop sold out of men's disposable underwear; deodorant and razor blades were perilously short. Rows of pup tents sprang up at the airport's entrance and many passengers overflowed onto a covered area near the parking lot. Groused Pat Shaw, a waitress from Buffalo: "I've slept on concrete for three days, and the big moral question facing me at night is whether to sleep in my clothes or on them."

At a Laker ticket office outside London's Victoria Station, 1,500 young people queued up for days to buy tickets to New York. As shown in the photo on the facing page, they slept on the sidewalk under makeshift plastic tents while it rained all week. On Thursday, with conditions worsening every hour, the British Civil Aviation Authority moved. The strict regulations rationing sales of low-fare tickets were bent, allowing airlines to use up their August, September and October stand-by quotas now in order to get stranded Americans home. Still, it will take weeks to move the mob.

FRANCE Flights into Paris' Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports were delayed an average of 16 hours, and many were held up for two days. Airport cafes and bars ran low on food and drink. Pharmacies had a run on inflatable cushions. Telephone coin boxes became so full that they jammed. At one point, Royal Air Maroc canceled flights. Angry passengers charged its offices at Orly and had to be restrained by riot police, who later took up positions to protect other airline ticket counters. Finally, bars were banned from serving liquor. Complained Frank North of Portland, Ore.: "The people at the counters won't even tell me what time the planes might leave. If I knew that, I could at least go into Paris and spend the day." At week's end, the air controllers suspended their slowdown while negotiations with the government continued. But if agreement is not reached soon, the chaos could well resume.

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