Exclusive:
A major technical fault has brought a number of British airports to a standstill this evening, as border control’s passport e-gates appeared to stop working – Heathrow, Stansted, Gatwick, Edinburgh, and Manchester all appeared to be affected
British travellers have been left fuming over chaos tonight across UK airports, as kids have been left waiting without water or food.
A fault – reportedly involving passport e-gates operated by the UK Border Force – has affected a number of airports, including Heathrow, Stansted, Gatwick, Edinburgh and Manchester – though the full extent of the issue is yet to be confirmed. An unpsecifief technical issue has been blamed for the issue.
Social media is awash with pictures and videos of holidaymakers forced to stand in snaking queues as they tried to enter the UK this evening. A number of passengers have contacted The Mirror and taken to social media to share what has been happening.
Joanna Griffin, who is stuck in a queue at Stansted Airport, told the Mirror: “[There are] loads of children waiting and no one has water or food. It’s a complete disgrace – they never have enough gates for a backup if the computer system fails.”
Barrister Chris, 36, told the Mirror he was stuck on a British Airways plane on the tarmac at Heathrow T5. He said: “We arrived slightly early from Lisbon but have not been allowed to disembark. Sadly I have work in the morning – the crew doesn’t know when they’ll be able to let us off.”
Chris, from North West London, added: “We haven’t been given any refreshments yet. The toilet taps actually ran out of water, so people have had to use bottled water to wash their hands!”
British Airways sent a message to its passengers waiting to get through Passport Control. The message read: “We are sorry to inform you that due to an IT issue at Border Force UK, you might experience some delays in disembarking your plane and clearing immigration at London Heathrow. This is outside of our control, our teams are working with border force to ensure you can clear immigration as soon as possible.”
Passenger Dr Douglas Meakin branded London Heathrow Terminal 2’s border control “a catastrophe”. He told The Mirror: “I estimate it’ll take around three hours to get through. No updates, no information, no nothing. It’s worse than any third world country I’ve been to. Unbelievable.”
Meanwhile, other travellers took to social media to voice their outrage. One at Heathrow described it as a scene of chaos where “thousands” were forced to stand waiting for border control. He wrote on social media: “Computer outage at Heathrow border control. A few thousand people in line and not a single person at Heathrow is able to figure out a solution.”
Another person caught up at Stansted chimed in: “Border control e-gates not working at Stansted due to computer problem. Fail over either not working or non existent. Another warm welcome to the UK at a broken airport.” At Heathrow, it was claimed by one passenger that “every single E-Gate” is not working at multiple terminals.
Molly Rosedale, who is stuck at Heathrow, wrote on Twitter: “All systems down and thousands in queues across all terminals. No plan in sight either. Water bottles are being handed out, never a good sign. Photo courtesy of my husband in Terminal 5.”
One person caught up at Stansted said on social media: “Border control e-gates not working at Stansted due to computer problem. Fail over either not working or non existent. Another warm welcome to the UK at a broken airport.” At Heathrow, it was claimed by one passenger that “every single E-Gate” is not working at multiple terminals.
Molly Rosedale, who is stuck at Heathrow, wrote on Twitter: “All systems down and thousands in queues across all terminals. No plan in sight either. Water bottles are being handed out, never a good sign. Photo courtesy of my husband in Terminal 5.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are aware of a technical issue affecting eGates across the country. We are working closely with Border Force and affected airports to resolve the issue as soon as possible and apologise to all passengers for the inconvenience caused.”