Security problems, endless queues, scenes of chaos… what happened at British airports ?

Les longues files d'attente à l'aéroport de Heathrow. Capture X @SamuelMorter

Dans la nuit de mardi 7 au mercredi 8 mai 2024, de nombreux aéroports britanniques rencontrent des problèmes, notamment au niveau de la sécurité.

Manchester, Gatwick or even Heathrow… Since last night, English airports have been hit hard by a breakdown which affected the security control system, reports the Huffington Post. The delays are considerable, sometimes creating confusion, even panic, among travelers.

Several hours of waiting

More concretely, the problem comes from the E-gates. These are the security gates which allow passengers to be checked by facial recognition, that is to say without even the presence of a border police agent, explains BFMTV.

"We are aware of an issue with Border Force systems across the country, affecting a significant number of airports& ;quot;, had noted Heathrow on X.

Following the Border Force national outage yesterday evening, all systems are now running as usual. Passengers can expect to travel through Heathrow smoothly. We apologise for any inconvenience caused pic.twitter.com/k0t3V1ehmu

— Heathrow Airport (@HeathrowAirport) May 8, 2024

"The problem caused long queues at airports, causing severe disruptions. The Border Force asked us to open all passport control offices and asked its teams to stay to help as many passengers as possible", for its part indicated British Airways.

Other English towns were not spared by this outage. The BBC underlined that the airports of Edinburgh, Birmingham, Bristol and Newcastle were impacted and that long queues were created.

Numerous images of angry travelers were relayed on the networks testifying to the difficult situation on site.

Big issues at Heathrow Passport Control with every single E-Gate not working. This is T3 pic.twitter.com/EkzcYGRckP

— Sam Morter (@SamuelMorter) May 7, 2024

Seems to be a UK nationwide airport system crash. No e gates working. This is the current queue in Gatwick airport with lots of children and no water #welcometotheuk pic.twitter.com/ckT21gJYXx

— Rosie (@rxsiebo) May 7, 2024

Chaos has been reported at airports across the UK – as several airports have confirmed a nationwide border issue. Both Stansted and Gatwick airports said the issue was related to e-gates at passport control

Latest ➡️ https://t.co/JBjFlOEQDx pic.twitter.com/kJmsAerKr2

— Sky News (@SkyNews) May 7, 2024

Security agents had no choice but to check passports by hand in order to unclog the halls. Several people on site say that the wait was several hours. Although this is not a hack, it is not the first time that British airports have encountered this type of problem. The Home office (equivalent to Ministry of the Interior in France) apologized "for the inconvenience caused".