PASSENGERS caught up in the chaotic opening of Heathrow's new Terminal 5 face a worrying wait for thousands of lost bags.

One Stockport holidaymaker has learned that, three days after returning home from Sydney, nobody knows where his luggage is.

Ray Goldrick, from Cheadle Hulme, flew back to Manchester via the London airport on Saturday after 10 weeks visiting family members in Australia.

Now he fears his suitcases, containing irreplaceable video footage of his baby granddaughter, may never show up.

Gone

He said: "The lady at British Airways' baggage handling didn't know when my bags should arrive or where they are now. According to the computer, they have just gone.

"If they could say we've got them here in London, or they're in a hangar, I'd go and get them myself. But BA doesn't want to tell you anything, so it's just a case of waiting."

Ray and his wife Brenda also slammed the facilities at Heathrow. They said they were greeted by an `awful, dirty and crowded' airport bus on their arrival there on Saturday. The lifts were broken and they were forced to borrow a mobile phone from an employee as they could not find a public phone working, they added.

The situation was also hectic at Manchester Airport, where 69-year-old Ray described a `great pile of bags' dumped in the arrivals hall.

The couple have lost two suitcases containing clothes, toys for their grandchildren in Manchester and video footage of their one-year-old granddaughter in Australia.

Ray said: "She's beautiful - just beginning to speak. We were in stitches with her and you can't replace that.

"I like to give people a chance - everyone makes mistakes. But when you consider the terminal's been 10 years in the making, all the lost bags and delays are disgraceful."

A BA spokeswoman could not confirm how many bags were still separated from their owners, because `the priority now is getting bags back to customers, not counting them'.

"We had about 15,000 bags on Sunday," she said. "I can't say how many there are now. For Manchester, we are sending bags via road.

"Missing bags are normally returned within 48 hours, but due to the numbers we can't give a time scale. We can't guarantee they are not lost."

The terminal was returning to normality last night, with passengers moving through smoothly. But the calm was achieved by BA continuing to axe scheduled flights.