What led to the chaos at Heathrow and other UK airports?

A significant number of air travellers arriving at various airports across the United Kingdom met with extensive delays on Tuesday night, following yet another breakdown of the eGates system responsible for automated passport checks. The IT malfunction persisted for over four hours before being rectified, during which time substantial queues formed at affected airports.

The nationwide disruption of the eGates system began at 7:44 pm (UK time) on Tuesday evening, prompting the UK Home Office to implement a “large-scale contingency response” within six minutes.

Consequently, all passengers were required to undergo manual passport checks as planes continued to arrive at airports such as Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Stansted, Luton, and Edinburgh. The influx of incoming flights led to prolonged queues at passport control.

At Heathrow Airport, space constraints within the terminal resulted in some passengers being kept onboard arriving aircraft for approximately thirty minutes.

Many travellers experienced wait times exceeding two hours, leading to difficulties in accessing public transportation, which had ceased operations for the night. The restoration of the eGates system occurred after midnight; however, clearing the backlog of passengers required additional time.

Despite the disruption, the UK Home Office assured that border security remained uncompromised, and said that there was no evidence of malicious cyber activity.

What are eGates and how do they work?

Nearly 300 eGates are strategically positioned at airports throughout the UK, along with installations at Eurostar rail terminals across Continental Europe, serving as the linchpin of the UK Border Force’s operational framework.

Designed to authenticate passport validity and ownership, these eGates cater to a vast majority of inbound passengers, including individuals aged 10 or older from various regions such as the UK, the European Union, the wider Schengen Area, North America, Australasia, Singapore, South Korea, and Japan.

Utilising the eGates involves placing the photo page of one’s passport onto the scanner and facing the camera for identity verification. This swift process typically takes around 15 seconds, allowing travellers seamless entry upon gate opening.

By automating the verification process for most arriving passengers, eGates afford passport control officers the opportunity to concentrate on scrutinising individuals of interest from other global regions.

Notably, the staffing schedules of the UK Border Force are predicated on the presumption that eGates will manage approximately 75 per cent of all passenger arrivals, streamlining operational efficiency at border entry points.

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However, the recent breakdown is not an isolated incident, with previous failures, including a major collapse over the late May bank holiday weekend in 2023, underscoring the system’s vulnerability to technical glitches.

Within the past two weeks another relatively brief eGates failure in the late afternoon led to queues of up to two hours at Edinburgh, Manchester, Bristol and other airports, reported The Independent.

What did flyers have to say?

Upon emerging from International Arrivals in the early hours of the morning, passengers shared their experiences with various UK-based media outlets.

One Fleur Lauriot who was flying from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Heathrow to visit her family told The Independent: “At the start of the queue, there was a kind of ‘every man for themselves’ attitude. People were queue jumping, which wasn’t good."

“We were queuing what felt for an eternity. But you know, as Brits, we love to queue.”

Mariella touched down at Heathrow from Athens at 8:30 pm and eventually emerged from International Arrivals shortly before 11pm. She told The Independent: “It was just crazy for two-and-a-half hours. People lost their connection flights and had to go to hotels to sleep for the night.”

Shenaz, a Londoner, arrived from Lisbon ahead of schedule at 9:10 pm. She finally cleared passport control two hours later. “British Airways staff were very good,” she said. “The airport staff were good. It’s a computer glitch. You blame the the higher authorities.”

At Stansted airport, Jenny Barber said, “It was chaotic. No communication, no direction once you got to gates, hardly any staff. Appalling.”

Sam Morter, 32, who landed at Heathrow’s Terminal 3 at around 7:30 pm from Sri Lanka, told MailOnline that he saw airport staff “scrambling” to sort the situation after the technical issue caused significant disruption at airports across the country. He said, “We headed to passport control where it already started to become pandemonium in there. All of the e-gates had just gone down and all of them had blank screens.”

“There was a lot of Border Force officials running and scrambling around. Four or five went to man the posts and start processing the UK passports manually. But at the same time, hundreds of passengers started to flood into passport control, so it all of a sudden became chaotic and they couldn’t cope with the number of the people coming in.”

“A lot of disgruntled, angry and frustrated passengers and people coming off of long-haul flights very tired, so that didn’t help. Not great scenes,” he added.

Barrister Chris, 36, told 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.”

With flight operations returning to normalcy, attention shifts to preventing future occurrences. Plans for enhanced automation, including “passportless” facial recognition technology, are underway to streamline passenger processing and minimise reliance on manual interventions.

With inputs from agencies