Travellers trying to return to the UK from the USA and Canada were stranded last night after a massive power cut paralysed five cities.
New York, Detroit, Cleveland, Ottawa and Toronto were all plunged into chaos by the blackout, which halted subway trains and left people trapped in high-rise buildings.
Seven British Airways flights from New York to Heathrow and Manchester were cancelled, and two from Toronto.
A number of flights to America and Canada from Heathrow were also disrupted. Two bound for Toronto were diverted to Montreal, and two for new York were switched to Philadelphia and Boston.
The power “outage” was reported to have been caused by a breakdown at a power plant in Manhattan, which de-stabilised the electricity grid along the eastern seaboard.
President George W Bush reassured Americans that the blackouts were not a terrorist act .
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