People queue to check in at Heathrow Airport in London, England.
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Long queues formed at UK airports, including the largest Heathrow, on Tuesday night after the UK Border Force encountered a nationwide technical issue affecting passport control.
Major UK airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted in the south, Manchester in the north of England and Edinburgh in Scotland, said they were aware of the problem across the country and that their staff We are working with Border Force officials to assist in resolving the situation.
One traveler described border officials rushing to manually process passport holders’ cases.
“All the electronic gates were blank, just a lot of chaos,” said Sam Morter, 32, who was returning to London Heathrow Airport from a holiday in Sri Lanka.
About 90 minutes later, he arrived at the airport.
Video posted on social media platform X showed long queues at passport counters at airports including London Stansted and Heathrow.
A Home Office spokesman said: “We are aware of technical issues affecting electronic gates across the country.”
People queue to check in at Gatwick Airport.
Andy Soloman | Underground CG | Universal Image Group | Getty Images
“We are working closely with Border Force and the affected airports to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and apologize to all passengers for the inconvenience.”
Britain’s automated border crossing system collapsed in May 2023, causing queues and hours of delays for travelers.
The country’s air traffic system also went into meltdown in August 2023, when a technical issue disrupted national air traffic services for several hours.
The Border Force is the law enforcement agency within the Home Office or Home Office responsible for passport control and electronic gates at airports.
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