A temporary power cut at terminal 5 of London’s Heathrow Airport has left thousands of fliers stranded without their luggage.
The power outage disabled the electronic baggage systems, resulting in long queues at the terminal, and also forced the airport to reset all check-in systems.
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The luggage had to be cordoned off in places across the airport and staff had to shift the bags manually.
An airport spokesperson was quoted by the Guardian as saying: "This morning, Terminal 5 suffered a loss of power due to an issue with our supplier. Power has now been restored. However, the baggage system has been impacted.
"We apologise and are working hard to resume a full service, and reunite passengers with their bags as quickly as possible. Flights are continuing to operate as normal."
A British Airways spokesperson said the airlines would try to put the passenger’s luggage in the next flight, in case they are unable to send the bags on the same flight.
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By GlobalDataThe airport is said to have deployed additional staff to deal with the situation.
While airlines had promised to reunite passengers with their luggage at the earliest, the Telegraph quoted the airport as saying that there would be a backlog as the bags that had been left behind would have to be accommodated on flights that were already busy.
Image: The power outage resulted in long queues at Heathrow airport’s Terminal 5. Photo: courtesy of British Airways.
