CHAOS AT HEATHROW AS ALL GATES GO DOWN IN BORDER FORCE 'IT GLITCH'

There is chaos at airports across the UK after all gates went down - with a Border Force IT glitch. 

Pictures on social media show enormous queues in front of the gates at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, Edinburgh and Manchester as thousands are waiting for their passports to be checked.

Heathrow staff reportedly told those in the queues that it was a nationwide IT problem affecting the e gates.

One passenger waiting at Heathrow told MailOnline that she has been waiting in the queue for more than an hour and that airport staff has started handing out water.

She said that people were told that the airport was working on a contingency to check passenger's documents.

Kylee Charles, who was among those stuck in queues at Gatwick, told MailOnline: 'We were caught up in the chaos. We've only just got out of Gatwick after waiting in huge queues of disgruntled travellers. 

'The Gatwick team took a while to get their back-up plan up and running, which consisted of a series laptops and what appeared to be additional staff; who were all calm and collected though.'

It is understood that the airports were now checking passports manually. 

Ryanair warned passengers due to arrive at UK airports in their app.

The notification 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 Heathrow Airport spokesperson said in a statement: 'Border Force is currently experiencing a nationwide issue which is impacting passengers being processed through the Border. 

'Our teams are supporting Border Force with their contingency plans to help resolve the problem as quickly as possible and are on hand to provide passenger welfare. We apologise for any impact this is having to passenger journeys.'

Manchester Airport's statement read: '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.'

This is a breaking news story. More to follow. 

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2024-05-07T20:22:16Z dg43tfdfdgfd