Chaos at Heathrow as people told they can't bring luggage
Thousands of passengers at London Heathrow had to travel without their bags after an issue with its baggage system affected Terminals 3 and 5.
Customers complained of long queues and disruption to their holiday plans after a mechanical problem with the conveyor belts that take bags through the airport.
One Twitter user wrote: 'Increasingly typical c*** up at Heathrow T5. Luggage system down, massive queues and, worst of all, no information.'
Hundreds of passengers at London Heathrow had to travel without their bags after an issue with its baggage system affected Terminals 3 and 5
Customers complained of long queues and disruption to their holiday plans after a mechanical problem with the conveyor belts that take bags through the airport
One Twitter user wrote: 'Increasingly typical c*** up at Heathrow T5. Luggage system down, massive queues and, worst of all, no information'
Terminal 5 is used mainly by British Airways, so its passengers were worst affected, although the airline is not responsible for the airport's baggage systems.
MailOnline understands there was a problem with the mechanical belts that carry luggage through the airport, rather than a IT failure or power outage.
Passengers, who were told to pack essential items on their hand luggage, went on social media to express their anger at the latest disruption.
Ceri Lewis tweeted: 'When your leaving for a snorkelling field trip and the Heathrow baggage system fails. Doooom!'
Zoe Morrison wrote: '@britishairways let us down again @HeathrowAirport- no baggage being loaded this morning and no information for passengers.'
Another frustrated passenger, Ryan Wooldridge, said: 'Baggage failure at @HeathrowAirport this morning. Bags won't be making it onto flights, absolute shambles.'
Terminal 5 is used mainly by British Airways, so its passengers were worst affected, although the airline is not responsible for the airport's baggage systems
MailOnline understands there was a problem with the mechanical belts that carry luggage through the airport, rather than a IT failure or power outage
Passengers, who were told to pack essential items on their hand luggage, went on social media to express their anger at the latest disruption
Customers complained on Twitter after another bout of chaos at Heathrow Airport
Rachel Jackson tweeted: 'Just found out that despite checking in 3 hours early bag not on flight disgusted what are you doing about it @HeathrowAirport?'
Heathrow said at 6.45am: 'We are currently experiencing an issue with its baggage systems which is affecting airlines operating from Terminal 3 and Terminal 5.
'This may mean passengers will travel without their bags, and we advise them to pack essential items in their hand luggage. Other terminals are unaffected.'
The airport released another statement at 9.05am saying the problem had been fixed.
This said: 'Further to the baggage issues we experienced earlier this morning, bag drop desks are now open and operating normally in Terminals 3 and 5. Terminals 2 and 4 were unaffected by the issue.
Heathrow said at 6.45am: 'We are currently experiencing an issue with its baggage systems which is affecting airlines operating from Terminal 3 and Terminal 5'
The airport released another statement at 9.05am saying the problem had been fixed
The airport suffered massive disruption on the May Bank Holiday after a power surge knocked out British Airways' IT system, stranding 75,000 passengers
'We continue to monitor the situation. We recommend that passengers who have already departed this morning without their luggage contact their airline for further updates. We are sorry to passengers affected by this issue.'
The airport suffered massive disruption on the May Bank Holiday after a power surge knocked out British Airways' IT system, stranding 75,000 passengers.
The systems failure caused mass flight cancellations over the weekend, ruining the half-term holiday plans of thousands of families and causing chaos at airports.
British Airways kept travellers in the dark about its cause, denying a cyber attack and blaming only a 'power failure' at an undisclosed location.
A spokesperson for BA said this morning: 'We are sorry for the delays this has caused and are doing everything we can to maintain a normal baggage service.'
Flights are operating as usual today.