It emerged on July 21st that passengers arriving on international flights were able to make their way through Heathrow Terminal 5 without passing through essential security checks.

The error, which occurred after the opening of T5, was made either by BAA employees or British Airways staff, and saw the passengers being incorrectly sent through Domestic Arrivals as opposed to International Arrivals.

Passengers Misdirected

According to Liam Byrne, Borders and Immigration Minister, passengers were misdirected on five occasions. On two of these, the mistake was picked up on and corrected, but not so on the other three.

Security Checks

In a reply to the House of Commons, Mr Byrne wrote: "UKBA [UK Border Agency] staff completed checks on the individuals to ensure that they did not present a known risk to the UK.

"The airline provided UKBA staff with the relevant passenger information that was held on their systems.

"This was then used to carry out checks on all of the passengers who had travelled on the flights involved.

"These checks included cross checking the details against Home Office databases. Passengers' details were also passed on to the Metropolitan Police Service."

Independently, the minister said: "On no occasion during these checks was there any security alert, and none of the passengers who entered the UK presented a known security risk."

Since April, when the last of the instances took place, no more have occurred, he added.

Heathrow Terminal 5's opening and first few days of business proved to be extremely problematic, with a host of cancelled flights and a large luggage backlog both featuring.

Source - Airport International's London Reporter

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