'Utter MISERY!' Border control gates malfunction as 'IT glitch' hits airports across the UK
"You would think for one night only, they would open the gates and let everyone out", fumed Jane Grogan
Jane Grogan/GB News
British holidaymakers have been left facing border control chaos after an IT glitch hit airports across the country.
Reports had filtered through from London Heathrow of troubles at passport gates, but the country's most popular airport was not on its own, with passengers also left stranded at Manchester, Stansted and Gatwick.
Jane Grogan, from Billericay in Essex, told GB News: "There's no staff, there's been one announcement - that filtered through like Chinese whispers - there's no air con, no water, no toilets, and the flights just keep rolling in. It's utter misery!"
Grogan, who had been waiting in line at London Stansted airport after flying in from Eindhoven in the Netherlands, added: "You would think for one night only, bearing in mind everyone's passports were checked as they boarded, they would open the gates and let everyone out - I've moved about 15 metres in an hour!"
Hundreds of held-up holidaymakers were spotted at London Stansted
Jane Grogan/GB News
In a post on social media, Heathrow Airport said: "We are aware that Border force is currently experiencing a nationwide issue.
"Our teams are supporting Border Force with their contingency plans to help resolve the problem as quickly as possible and we apologise for any impact to your journey."
The flight took off from Heathrow Airport PAIn a separate statement, Manchester Airport said: "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."
Budget airline Ryanair also issued a warning to its passengers arriving at UK airports.
The notification said: "Please be advised that the Electronic Passport gates are temporarily unavailable at all UK Airports.
A sign by the scanners at Heathrow AirportPA"You may experience extended queue times at passport control in airports in the United Kingdom as a result of this outage."
A user said: "So far spent 60 minutes at the Border at LHR.
"Gates not working we can see, but zero communications on tannoy or staff going round to explain. C**p welcome home. Thanks for the water."
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An airliner comes in to land at Heathrow AirportGETTYAnother user wrote: "All systems down and thousands in queues across all terminals Heathrow Airport.
"No plan in sight either. Water bottles are being handed out, never a good sign. Photo courtesy of my husband in Terminal 5."
A third added: "At Heathrow Airport and no one is allowed to get through passport security.
"The queue is way longer than this. Apparently, the issue is a system outage."