I remember when HALs systems went down, they couldn’t scan at the first or the second, eventually, a manager told security to use a manual back up- writing down passport numbers for each passenger. Fine except I was travelling to MAN and just using ID.

They allowed me through with some explaining and on asking was told the conformance had ‘likely’ been suspended. I did question the lack of biometrics at the time and asked in CCR as well as I was worried that conformance would offload me.

When I got to the gate, computer said no. Not because of conformance but due to lack of biometrics. They had to get someone from security to attend the gate and liaise with security CCTV to confirm I went through security- which took about 25 minutes.

Thankfully, was boarded and the HAL system failure meant that not many planes departed that night, thankfully mine was one of the few after a significant ground delay- they’d already submitted a flight plan, and had to do a manual process for other bits of paperwork.

I was late for an evening meeting that night, making the post meeting social only but apparently it was quite a heated meeting so was rather glad of the delay in the end.