Tourist nightmare as technical glitch leaves piles of stranded luggage at Heathrow Airport

A system fault at Heathrow Airport has left tourists without their luggage. Chaos erupted when a handling fault at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 left on Friday hundreds of British Airways bags undelivered, with dozens of flights departing without passengers’ checked luggage.

Due to a system fault, piles upon piles of unclaimed suitcases were left in the drop-off and pick-up areas at Britain’s largest international airport. Frustrated passengers claimed on social media that they were left waiting for hours for their baggage to arrive. One X user asked Heathrow Airport on the platform when British Airways "T5 passengers can expect their bags to be delivered".

A spokesperson for the airport replied apologising for "any disruption this may have caused and are supporting the airline to ensure any missed bags are resent promptly".

"Please stay up-to-date with your airline for further updates", the spokesperson added.

One disgruntled passenger posted a video showing rows of suitcases filling the baggage reclaim area, waiting to be collected.

The user wrote: "Absolute joke at Heathrow airport, flight landed at 10:35 was delayed from getting off the plane for 30 minutes.

"To then arrive at baggage reclaim waited 3 hours and two belt changes to be then told all the staff have gone home and you can’t get your baggage."

"Epic fail today. This is yesterday’s luggage waiting to go. It’s not secure, anyone could take it. It’s carnage and it’s disgraceful. No information- just a shrugging of shoulders", added another customer.

A third passenger wrote: "No staff available to advise, baggage system failure - five hours waiting with no luggage or updates. Gave up and went home. Lack of communication frustrating - passengers deserve clear info on timings."

In a statement Heathrow airport confirmed to the Express that the baggage system is now up and running.

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.”

British Airways also said the system was up and running on Saturday afternoon, but customers could still see an ongoing impact.

A spokesperson for the airline told MyLondon: "Whilst this issue is entirely out of our control, we're sorry to our customers for any inconvenience caused."