Heathrow Airport has apologized to passengers who were separated from their luggage due to a technical defect and were stranded on the plane for hours.
Holidaymakers travelling with British Airways (BA) had to travel without their luggage and endured long waiting times while they waited for their luggage.
Video taken from Terminal 5 on Tuesday evening showed huge queues of travellers forming as BA passengers struggled to find their luggage.
British Airways is said to have informed passengers via text message: “We regret to inform you that due to a technical issue with our baggage allocation system at Heathrow, we are unable to guarantee that your baggage will travel with you on your flight today.”
A Heathrow spokesman said BA had experienced a technical problem with its allocation system which had now been resolved, but problems at Britain’s busiest airport could continue until Wednesday.
Passengers described how “all hell broke loose” at the airport when their luggage went missing, with one traveller claiming BA told him to “go home”.
Freddy Rogers told the Standard that his flight from Heathrow to Nice was delayed by around three and a half hours, forcing passengers to wait on the plane.
He said: “We finally boarded the plane at around 8pm. We were locked in and could not leave until 11pm when passengers were given the option to leave the plane or remain on board… We finally took off at 11.48pm.”
“Every single passenger on my flight who had checked a bag lost their luggage. You can imagine the chaos because when we landed in Nice, most passengers wanted to know where their things were.
“We can only report it as missing, but there is still no update from BA.”
Stephen Rooney told the Standard that a “quick hop” home to Newcastle to celebrate his mother’s 70th birthday had turned into a “nightmare”.
The 37-year-old explained that his flight was delayed for more than three hours before the plane finally took off without any passenger luggage.
A second traveller told the Standard that he had to wait three hours for his luggage after landing at Heathrow.
Jennifer Macey, 73, said an airport employee explained BA’s IT system had been “down all day” and passengers had been warned to expect long waits for their luggage.
She said: “A woman came by with papers. There was a problem and you could wait an average of three hours or leave without luggage and use the PIN on the sheet to claim lost luggage and have it delivered.
“We finally decided to leave because it was already after 6 p.m., we had been on the road since 8 a.m. and a taxi driver was waiting.”
Indian actress Aditi Rao Hydari was also delayed by the disruption at Heathrow. The Bollywood star complained on Instagram that she was stuck on an empty conveyor belt at the airport for hours because her luggage had gone missing.
Another angry traveller wrote on social media: “Heathrow airport chaos, no luggage arriving. No information, just instructions to go home. But I need the luggage for a wedding tomorrow and you tell me my luggage will arrive in 48 hours.”
Another passenger said his child suffered a panic attack because of the long wait.
He wrote on social media: “My family was stuck on a plane that landed from Madrid 90 minutes ago. An absolute disgrace.”
“My daughter is having a panic attack and the pilot is not receiving any updates.”
A BA spokesman said: “We have apologised to customers who were unable to travel with their baggage due to a temporary technical fault that was outside our control.
“This issue has been resolved and we have hired additional colleagues to support our teams in returning bags to our customers as quickly as possible.”
A Heathrow spokesman said: “British Airways had a technical issue with their allocation system. This has now been resolved.”
“Our teams are on site supporting BA with the recovery.
“We advise passengers to check with BA before travelling to the airport as BA passengers in Terminal 5 may still be affected. No other airline is affected.”
Were you affected by the outage? Email [email protected]
