Another e-gate outage has caused widespread scenes of chaos and delays across UK airports before being fixed but was not a “cyber-attack”, the Home Office has said.
E-gates system network issue to blame
Border Force personnel rushed to perform passport checks manually as an e-gate “system network issue” spotted by engineers at 7:44 pm on Tuesday, 7 May became apparent. According to the Home Office “a large-scale contingency response was activated within six minutes” and airport authorities deployed their own staff to assist operations.
Long queues nonetheless built up at automated gates across the country’s major air hubs. The problem continued until the e-gates “came back online shortly after midnight,” according to the Home Office.
Offline for over four hours
Facial recognition technology at e-gates verifies a passenger’s identity without the need for in-person checks, meaning arrivals are able to be processed far more quickly than manual systems allow. Between 60% and 80% of passengers use e-gates depending on the airport, according to estimates by the Immigration Services Union.
With more than 270 of the systems affected for over four hours at border points across 15 UK airports and railway stations, the issue made itself felt nationwide at Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Gatwick, Heathrow, London Stansted, Manchester and Newcastle. Border Force operations at Belfast International Airport in Northern Ireland were also affected, even though it has no e-gates installed.
Chaotic scenes, arguing and lawlessness
Crowding was such in places that walkways and access to toilets were blocked and individuals requiring additional assistance were stranded amid what passengers described as “chaotic scenes” and “arguing”.
Social media posts showed thousands of people in deep “lawless queues” and, in some cases waiting for longer than the duration of their flights.
No indication of malicious cyber activity
The Home Office, which runs UK Border Forces, has apologised for the “disruption” and thanked “airlines for their cooperation and support.” A spokesperson went on to add that “at no point was border security compromised, and there is no indication of malicious cyber activity”.
The latest e-gate incident is the third time in just a year that operations at UK airports have been struck by failures of nationwide automated systems. May 2023 once more saw an e-gate outage to blame for chaos at airports across the country, and in August 2023, the National Air Traffic Service system went down, leading to the cancellation of 2,000 flights and tens of thousands of stranded flyers.
