Heathrow meltdown: Thousands of passengers including Louis Theroux unable to enter UK
Documentary maker Louis Theroux was among thousands of passengers unable to enter the country as a result of e-gate failures at Heathrow airport.
In a statement posted on Twitter, Heathrow said it was “aware of a systems failure impacting the e-gates, which are staffed & operated by Border Force.”
“This issue is impacting a number of ports of entry and is not an isolated issue at Heathrow. Our teams are working with Border Force to find a solution as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson added.
The queues are reportedly so long that planes have joined a queue on the tarmac outside Heathrow Terminal 5.
Hannah King, a passenger, shared her annoyance on Twitter saying, “Border force systems are down (shock) and our plane is now stuck on the tarmac due to the volume of the queues inside.” She urged Heathrow Airport to sort out travel disruption which she labelled “beyond a nightmare.”
Another passenger, Jaspreet Bindra, said the queues were over one kilometre long and said that officials were moving from one end to the other on bicycles.
Heathrow Airport responded to travellers on Twitter saying, “queue times are at unacceptable levels. Border Force are working to process passengers and we have called on the UK Government to address the problem as a matter of urgency, we do appreciate your patience.”
Manchester Airport also announced it was suffering from IT failures causing a fault with e-gates at the UK border.
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