Heathrow passengers delayed for hours after biometric passport gates fail

Airline passengers reported delays of up to four hours as airports across the UK were hit by a second e-gate technical fault within two weeks. Travellers arriving at Heathrow were forced to either wait in long queues in terminals or remain on aircraft. Gatwick and Edinburgh airports were also affected. E-gates, managed by UK Border Force, allow travellers with biometric passports to pass through border control without a manual inspection. A systems failure caused e-gates to stop working for several hours on 24 September, so passengers had to wait to have their travel documents inspected by staff. The Home Office said it first received a report about the latest “technical issue” at about 7.30am on Wednesday, and the problem was resolved 90 minutes later. Passengers arriving at Heathrow on Wednesday morning described the queues as a “total disgrace”. Christian Jones, who had returned from a trip to Finland, said he had to queue for an hour. “The queues were snaking out of the arrivals hall all the way down the corridor and into the connecting flights corridor … I queued for one hour but others, I believe, queued for about four hours,” said the 41-year-old from Cambridge.<br/>