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London, United Kingdom (UK)
People wait in line at Heathrow airport, after the Border Force suffered a nationwide technical issue that affected passport control, in London, May 7, 2024. (Reuters)
UK airports in turmoil as Border Force IT systems crash, causing nationwide chaos. Massive queues, delays, and manual passport checks disrupt travel
The UK Home Office on Wednesday said border control systems in the country are operational after a sudden and widespread outage led to lengthy queues and chaotic scenes at airports nationwide. This unprecedented incident left travelers stranded in endless queues, facing significant delays and manual passport checks.
The malfunction of the country’s main Border Crossing security database brought airport operations to a grinding halt, The Daily Mail reported. For hours, e-gates, essential for expediting passenger processing, lay dormant without access to the vital IT infrastructure.
There is widespread chaos at all UK airports due to computer failures, writes The Sun.There was a problem with the border service databases and electronic gates. Long queues of people awaiting manual passport checks formed.
The video shows the situation at Heathrow Airport,… pic.twitter.com/QJdkGVy9Zd
— Global Monitor (@monitor3444) May 8, 2024
With Border Force officers forced to resort to manual checks against backup databases, the efficiency of border control was severely compromised, reports said. Pictures flooding social media platforms depicted scenes of queues snaking through airports like Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, Edinburgh, and Manchester. Passengers, eager to reach their destinations, found themselves trapped in corridors and arrival halls, awaiting passport verification.
The collapse of the country’s Border Crossing system, designed to cross-reference traveler information with terrorism records, the Police National Computer, and immigration databases, has led to severe disruptions. According to The Daily Mail, insiders attribute the system failure to a breakdown in the government’s secure Wi-Fi network, which facilitates real-time updates to security systems. Without these crucial updates, e-gates are rendered ineffective, the report said.
Earlier on Wednesday, airports issued statements acknowledging the nationwide technical outage. “At no point was border security compromised and there is no indication of malicious cyber activity”, the Home Office said in an emailed statement to Reuters. Britain’s biggest airport, Heathrow, said all of its border control systems were running as usual and that it expected no issues when operations re-start in the morning. London Stansted Airport also confirmed the outage had been resolved.
(With agency inputs)
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