Olympian Steve Backley is stranded amid air traffic chaos as he joins fellow passengers forced to catch up to three trains and the Eurostar back from Budapest to London

Passengers including Olympian Steve Backley trying to get home to the UK amid the air control chaos are being forced to make extraordinary new arrangements.

One man was forced into taking four trains to escape Germany in a rail epic that will take some 17 hours.

The massive system failure yesterday grounded thousands of flights across Europe, sparking delays that could last days.

Details on the problem were revealed by one airline at 11.40am on Monday with NATS – formerly the National Air Traffic Services – then taking half an hour to put any information out. 

Mr Backley was one of those caught up in the debacle after his flight back from Budapest was axed.

Former Olympic Sprinter Iwan Thomas was also stranded in Amsterdam and spoke to GMB about his ordeal

Journalist Tim Adams was also embarking on a long journey back home from Budapest

He posted online his journey back, telling fans: ‘Went to fly home, sat on a plane for six hours, got kicked off and then told we were going to have a two-day delay.

‘I’m now at a Budapest train station on a very long journey I think it’s a 24-hour journey home and that’s just to London then I’ve got to get my car from Gatwick.’

Later as he reached one station he posted another video revealing he had run into difficulties.

He said: ‘Interesting twist on this stopover because I’ve got a three hour gap and they’ve closed the train station and they won’t let me inside.

‘The police are here kicking some local tramps from the front of the station. It’s 1am and I’ve got a train at 4am, not sure what the options are from here.’

He then updated from another station that was going to take him to Frankfurt then to Brussels.

Delays at Edinburgh Airport this morning due to the air traffic control fault yesterday morning

Passengers are pictured at London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5, the morning after an air traffic control fault caused significant flight delays and cancellations

Mr Backley said ‘I’ve broken the back of it now.’ 

There were other harrowing stories of travel misery pouring out of European airports paralysed by the system failure.

The BBC’s correspondent Jon Donnison said: ‘One man told us coming back from Munich he was going to take three trains and get the Eurostar over to Britain.

‘He wouldn’t be back until Wednesday morning after a 17 hour journey from just Munich

‘It’s a pretty bad situation.’

Former Olympic Sprinter Iwan Thomas was also stranded in Amsterdam and spoke to GMB about his ordeal.

He said: ‘I estimate I’ve spent about a thousand pounds, what with getting a Eurostar ticket, you know the prices seem to be through the roof, and accommodation for one, possibly two nights.

‘As you said there are probably people travelling back for a funeral or travelling with elderly relatives or to a wedding so I can’t really complain.

‘It was heartbreaking though because my boy Teddy burst into tears when I told him I won’t be home maybe for two more nights.

‘He’s probably more tearful because he knows I bought him some Lego. My suitcases are somewhere in transit so I don’t know when I am going to get those back.’