THOUSANDS of passengers are facing chaos at all UK airports due to a nationwide IT failure.
Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester are among the airports facing huge queues and long waiting times due to a “technical issue” with Border Control.
4
4
4
Tens of thousands of Travelers Arriving home after vacation, they spent the night stuck in crowded queues at passport control.
Photos show furious British citizens waiting for their passports to be checked manually because of an IT glitch.
The Home Office said it was aware of a “technical issue” affecting the gates and was working closely with Border Force to resolve it “as quickly as possible”.
Paul Curievici, from Haslemere, Surrey, landed at Gatwick Airport at around 7.30pm on a flight from Lyon and waited in line at passport control for almost an hour.
The 41-year-old said: “(I was) a little resigned to what initially seemed like another failure in British infrastructure, and (I had) a lot of sympathy for the poor bastards furrowing their eyebrows and trying not to look embarrassed.”
Curievici said Gatwick’s electronic gates had now reopened but that fast lane passengers continued to be prioritised, which he found “very annoying”.
He continued: “There was an awkward moment – half of us were funneled into the ‘all passports’ queue.
“When the system came back up, they reopened almost all the UK/EU gates without opening any for us – in fact, I spoke to a member of staff and they finally opened one.”
Sam Morter, 32, who arrived at Heathrow from Sri Lanka, said it was “pandemonium” when he arrived at passport control in Terminal 3, where all the electronic gates had blank screens.
He said: “There were a lot of Border Force officers running around and moving around. Four or five went to fill the posts and start processing UK passports manually.
“But at the same time, hundreds of passengers started storming passport control, so suddenly everything became chaotic and they couldn’t cope with the number of people arriving.
“We have not received any information. There has been no information about the Tannoys or the team.”
Ryanair customers due to land in the UK were notified via their app.
The notification said: “Please be advised that ePassport gates are temporarily unavailable at all UK airports.
“You may experience long queue times at passport control at UK airports as a result of this disruption.”
The notification said: ‘Please be advised that ePassport gates are temporarily unavailable at all UK airports.
“You may experience long queue times at passport control at UK airports as a result of this disruption.”
A Heathrow Airport spokesperson told The Sun: “Border Force is currently experiencing a national issue which is affecting passengers crossing the border.
“Our teams are supporting Border Force with their contingency plans to help resolve the issue as quickly as possible and are on hand to support passenger wellbeing.
“We apologize for any impact this is having on passenger journeys.”
A Manchester Airport spokesperson said: “We are aware of an issue with UK Border Force systems across the country, affecting a significant number of airports.
“Our resilience team and customer service colleagues are supporting passengers while UK Border Force and the Home Office resolve the issue.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “eGates at UK airports came back online shortly after midnight.
“As soon as engineers detected a wider problem in the system network at 7:44 pm last night, a full-scale contingency response was activated within 6 minutes.
“At no time was border security compromised and there is no indication of malicious cyber activity.
“We apologize to travelers affected by the disruptions and thank our partners, including airlines, for their cooperation and support.”
The disruption comes after Border Force workers staged a four-day strike at Heathrow in a dispute over working conditions last week.
The union said workers were protesting plans to introduce new lists which they say will see around 250 of them forced out of their jobs at passport control.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
