Heathrow Airport was left in chaos as British Airways passengers were left trapped on planes, with many having to take off without their luggage.

Travellers were forced to travel without their clothes and faced huge delays to try and get their possessions back due to a technical issue at Terminal 5.

Video from the Terminal on Tuesday night showed massive queues of travellers forming across the airport, as passengers struggled to find their luggage.

On Tuesday evening British Airways (BA) was reported to have texted passengers: “We’re sorry to inform you that, due to a technical issue with our baggage allocation system at Heathrow, we can’t guarantee that your bags will have travelled with you on your flight today.”

A Heathrow spokesperson said BA had experienced a technical issue with their allocation system and the issue has now been resolved, although issues may still continue into Wednesday at the UK’s busiest airport.

Passengers described how “all hell broke loose” at the airport as their luggage went missing, with one traveller claiming they were told to “go home” by BA. Stephen Rooney told the Standard a “short hop” home to Newcastle to celebrate his mother’s 70th birthday had become a “nightmare”.

The 37-year-old explained his flight was delayed by over three hours before the plane finally took off without carrying any passenger baggage.

He said: “The captain made another announcement apologising for the delay and saying that as we’d cross the three-hour mark he’d encourage us to apply for compensation directly with BA.

“He was very chatty and his banter hid the fact he knew we were flying without any baggage on board (something he failed to mention).” A second traveller told the Standard they faced a three-hour wait for their luggage once they had landed at Heathrow.

Jennifer Macey, 73, said that a member of staff at the airport explained that BA’s IT system “had been down all day” and passengers were warned they faced long waits for their luggage.

She said: “A woman came round with sheets of paper. There was a problem and you could wait three hours on average or you could go without your luggage and use the PIN on the sheet to claim for lost luggage and have it delivered. In the end we decided to go because it was after 6pm and we had been travelling since 8am and a taxi driver was waiting.”

Indian actress Aditi Rao Hydari was also held up by the disruption at Heathrow Airport. The Bollywood star complained on Instagram that she had been stuck at an empty conveyor belt at the airport for hours after her luggage went missing. (BusinessDay)

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