Passengers wait for luggage for hours in Heathrow Airport baggage ‘fiasco’

A long line of baggage had built up at Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 reclaim area (Picture: Tamara Bishopp)

Passengers landing at Heathrow Airport terminal faced a long delays for their bags, with many sent home empty-handed.

The baggage reclaim area at Terminal 5 at the UK’s busiest airport saw luggage pile up yesterday after flights, with some passengers having to leave without theirs, and some waiting for hours.

Footage from the area shows a long line of bags snarling past the reclaim belts, while others are bundled up messily on the floor.

Tamara Bishopp, the director of Bishopp PR company from Dulwich, London, said the terminal’s reclaim zone was ‘total chaos’ last night.

What the Heathrow T5 baggage reclaim area looked like yesterday evening following an issue with the baggage system (Picture: Tamara Bishopp)

She told Metro: ‘There were abandoned bags, prams, and wheelchairs from earlier passengers everywhere.’

Her British Airways flight from Istanbul touched down at Heathrow at about 10.20pm, and passengers were told to go to belt 5.

‘One woman was unable to leave as her mother’s medication was in her checked bag,’ Tamara said.

Staff did not offer any information and the travellers had to seek it themselves, Tamara claimed.

She continued: ‘There were several announcements stating that luggage was not arriving from various flights, and after waiting until past midnight, we were finally told to go home.

Londoner Tamara was caught in the baggage ‘fiasco’ at Heathrow after landing yesterday (Picture: Tamara Bishopp)

‘No one from our flight received their bags. Older people struggled with having to download a QR code to log their lost luggage.’

She labelled the issue as a ‘truly shocking fiasco’ and called for it to be sorted before the summer holiday season.

Another passenger claimed on social media that issues are continuing this evening.

The woman claimed that staff told her today that everything was okay but ‘now three out of four checked bags are missing.’

Another passenger said she waited at the baggage belt for three hours yesterday and swapped belts twice before being told ‘all the staff have gone home and you can’t get your luggage.’

What caused the baggage issue at Heathrow?

The baggage system meltdown hit just weeks before half term and the summer holidays (Picture: Tamara Bishopp)

Metro understands that the technical fault originated in the airport’s system that sends bags out, which then had a knock-on impact on the arriving luggage system.

A Heathrow spokesperson said: ‘Due to a technical fault yesterday, some baggage did not depart Terminal 5 as planned and we apologise for any disruption this may have caused.

‘The issue has been fixed and passengers are checking in as normal today. We will continue to support British Airways to ensure any missed bags are resent as quickly as possible.’

A British Airways spokesperson told Metro: ‘Whilst Heathrow Airport’s baggage system is back up and running, there is an ongoing impact on our customers as we work hard to get their luggage to them as quickly as possible.

‘Whilst this issue is entirely out of our control, we’re sorry to our customers for any inconvenience caused.’

Metro understands that more staff have been brought in and bags continue to be send to their owners.

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