Heathrow Passengers Wait at Passport Security After UK Border System Crash

Passengers were left waiting for hours at Heathrow and other airports on May 7 after a UK Border Force outage that prevented systems functioning, including e-gates.

The outage lasted several hours, leaving inbound and outbound passengers delayed.

Footage filmed by Roshane Thomas showed a large line snaking through a Heathrow departure area as passengers waited to enter passport control.

“No one is allowed to get through passport security. The queue is way longer than this. Apparently the issue is a system outage,” Thomas wrote on X.

Further video showed arriving passengers also stuck at border gates.

Heathrow announced the systems were “back up and running" early on Wednesday morning. Passengers were seen cheering and applauding as the e-gates came back online.

The Home Office spokesperson told the BBC “at no point was border security compromised, and there is no indication of malicious cyber activity.” Credit: Roshane Thomas via Storyful

Video transcript

So Not so.My No Say again.Ok, Ok. No, What it is is a glitch.Yeah, so no.OK, no.Say again.Oh, yeah.Well, no, What it is is a glitch question.