Power Outage Cripples Heathrow, Luggage Piles Up as Thousands Fly Without Bags

A power outage decommissioned the baggage system in Terminal 5 of London Heathrow Airport (LHR) Tuesday morning, sending passengers into a panic as they boarded flights without knowing whether their luggage would be traveling with them.

Powerless conveyor belts held thousands bags hostage throughout the outage. LHR officials reportedly informed travelers that they could either stay behind and secure their luggage, or board their flights and hope that their belongings would follow.

Airport staff members were forced to manually move the luggage-filled conveyor belts along, resulting in enormous piles of bags surrounded by passengers frantically attempting to find their belongings. Several travelers tweeted accounts of the chaos.

@HeathrowAirport no luggage still from Amsterdam flight does Heathrow airport ever work

— Gerry Rowe (@GGERRYROWE) August 4, 2015

Anyone flying from Heathrow Terminal 5 today (for Gamescom) take just hand luggage. A power cut is causing hold cases not reaching flights.

— Laura Kate Dale (@LaurakBuzz) August 4, 2015

Conveyor belts not working causes chaos at @HeathrowAirport Teminal 5 this morning. I have a feeling we may never see our cases again.

— Emma Shevah (@emmashevah) August 4, 2015

LHR later issued the following statement:

This morning Terminal 5 suffered a loss of power due to an issue with our supplier. Power has now been restored, however the baggage system was impacted for a number of hours. We apologise to passengers affected and we are working hard to ensure that they are reunited with their bags as quickly as possible. Flights are continuing to operate as normal.

[Photo: Twitter]