A technical issue with baggage system left a flood of suitcases at one of the terminals of London's Heathrow Airport on June 17.
Many passengers had to travel without their luggage. For others, check-in was delayed, the Telegraph reported.
Sky News editor Deborah Haynes, who was exiting the airport after her arrival from Brussels, said she had never seen a chaotic situation like this.
"I could see this crazy mass of suitcases filling the pavement like an enormous luggage carpet," she said.
She tweeted a video showing the massive luggage pile-up at the airport.
Suddenly a slight wait for my luggage to arrive at @HeathrowAirport is even more of an irrelevance - at least it came on the same flight and is leaving with me… pic.twitter.com/h42BfCe0mo
— Deborah Haynes (@haynesdeborah) June 17, 2022
Some passengers were told that they might not get their luggage for two days, Sky News reported.
"One passenger was overheard saying 'but I'm climbing Kilimanjaro tomorrow I need all my stuff'," another Sky News editor Dominic Waghorn, who was also at Heathrow on Friday, said.
A passenger named Stuart Dempster said there was a two-hour delay at baggage reclaim.
Lost luggage has a final resting place perhaps….@HeathrowAirport T2…mine’s the black one (I think) pic.twitter.com/u0tDMTgFHj
— Stuart Dempster (@StuDempster) June 17, 2022
Heathrow Airport apologised to passengers for the chaos.
"Earlier today there was a technical issue with the Terminal 2 baggage system which has now been resolved," an airport spokesperson told the BBC. "Passengers are now able to check-in as normal, but a number of passengers who departed from Terminal 2 earlier today may have travelled without their luggage."They added :"We are working closely with airlines to reunite passengers with their luggage as soon as possible. We're sorry there's been disruption to passenger journeys."