T5 letting foreigners roam free in the UK - Heathrow Airport News

Airport news for Heathrow on 12/05/2008.

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Hundreds of foreigners were allowed to enter into Britain this week without even a cursory check of their passport according to reports in the Telegraph. The newspaper said that confusion in Heathrow’s newest terminal building resulted in overseas passengers becoming confused as domestic arrivals. As a result, hundreds of travelers failed to pass through immigration or customs upon arrival into the UK.

The Home Office claims that all arriving passengers have been traced and that the situation is under control but other sources in the Immigration Service Union claim that six passengers flying on a British Airways flight from Libya, who did not have to show passports when entering the country, have not been found.

British Airways first admitted to the errors on May 10th, chalking up another blunder on the growing list which have occurred since Terminal 5 opened its doors at the end of March. Since the opening week 500 flights were cancelled and 23,000 bags have been misplaced.

The error this time appears to be in ferrying passengers from their airplane to their gate. In some cases international arrivals have been shuttled to domestic gates.

In the case of the flight from Libya, officials were only alerted of the error when passengers began asking where they should go.

A spokesperson from BA told the Telegraph: “When Terminal 5 initially opened, there were a very small number of incidents where passengers from international flights were bused to the wrong zones. We are confident that this matter has now been addressed and new processes have been put in place.”

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