For four hours, the system used by the border guard to operate biometric gates did not work. Employees had to serve passengers in a traditional way, which resulted in huge queues. – There was a lot of chaos – says Sam Morter in an interview with the BBC.
The airport was attacked by hackers? The British rule it out
The problems began on Tuesday around 8 p.m. and were resolved shortly after midnight our time. The British Home Office announced that airport gates are operational again. The information was confirmed by Heathrow Airport. It is not known what caused the failure, but the services ruled out a hacker attack.
People were stranded in Stansted, Gatwick and Luton, among others. They were also waiting in Edinburgh and Manchester. Over time, the list of ports affected by the failure began to grow, including Glasgow and Aberdeen, but also Belfast International, which reported problems with the broader IT system. This is not the first such case. A similar incident, although on a smaller scale, occurred last month.
Huge queues and many hours of waiting
– I stood in line for about 90 minutes. Priority was given to families with small children, and the staff handed out bottled water to everyone, said in an interview with Steven Brownrigg, who arrived at Manchester airport. The longest waits were at the UK’s largest port, Heathrow.
– I think this queue is several kilometers long. A huge, twisting snail – described one of the unlucky passengers, Dominika Tarczyńska, a Polsat News journalist. – They started letting people with children pass. Someone reported that they were going to visit their dying father, so they let them through, she added in an interview with Polish Radio. But not only for her, getting to passport control was only the beginning of the problems.
An accident at the airport is nothing…
After leaving the terminal, the travelers were faced with the question: “what to do in the middle of the night, when the train and metro are not running and there is another huge queue for taxis?” Luton and Stansted are dozens of kilometers away from London. Even Heathrow is a deep suburb of the capital. The situation was not made easier by the railway strike, which mainly affected the London area and south-eastern England.
Source: Gazeta
Mabel is a talented author and journalist with a passion for all things technology. As an experienced writer for the 247 News Agency, she has established a reputation for her in-depth reporting and expert analysis on the latest developments in the tech industry.
