BORDER CONTROL 'E-GATES DOWN' SPARKING HUGE QUEUES AND NATIONWIDE CHAOS AT UK AIRPORTS

Major airports across the UK are in chaos after a fault reportedly involving Border Force passport e-gates.

The problem is affecting the e-gates system at a number of airports, including Heathrow, Stansted, Gatwick, Edinburgh and Manchester. It has not yet been confirmed how many airports are affected.

There have been reports of a unspecified technical issue affecting the system. 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.”

Images shared on social media show long lines of holidaymakers trying to return to the UK on Tuesday evening, while passenger Dr Douglas Meakin told Mirror.co.uk that London Heathrow Terminal 2's border control is "a catastrophe". He said: "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."

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Another passenger at Heathrow described a scene of chaos at the airport as "thousands" of people were forced to wait at 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." Passports are being checked manually at Manchester, according to the Manchester Evening News.

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!"

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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."

A passenger stuck in the queue at Stansted airport, Joanna Griffin, meanwhile told the Mirror that "thousands of people" were waiting and said "no announcements" had been made to inform passengers of what is happening. She added: "Loads of children waiting and no one has water or food. It’s a complete disgrace - they never have enough gates for a back up if the computer system fails. "

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."

Airports have said they have deployed staff to help passengers during the disruption. Staff at Heathrow have been handing out water and are said to have told passengers - some of whom reported waiting for longer than an hour at the gates - that the delays were due to a "nationwide" problem. Some passenger were also reported to have been prevented from disembarking their flights due to the disruption inside the airport.

Airlines are informing customers of the disruption, as one message claimed the problem was affecting "all UK airports". A notification on the official Ryanair app read: "Please be advised that the Electronic Passport gates are temporarily unavailable at all UK Airports. You may experience extended queue times at passport control in airports in the United Kingdom as a result of this outage."

A Manchester Airport spokesman said: "We are aware of an issue with UK Border Force's systems across the country, affecting a significant number of airports. Our Resilience Team and customer services colleagues are supporting passengers while UK Border Force and the Home Office fix the issue."

Late last month, travellers were stuck in huge queues for at least 45 minutes after a Border Force outage hit UK airports including Edinburgh. The Home Office later confirmed problems with e-Gates. Lengthy lines emerged at Gatwick Airport, with issues also reported at Heathrow and Luton.

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2024-05-07T19:32:59Z dg43tfdfdgfd