Emergency security measures ordered by the American government Saturday quickly led to chaos at Heathrow and other British airports with delays reaching up to five hours.
The authorities instructed all airlines to impose the new tier of last-minute checks on all passengers flying to America within hours of a Nigerian man’s arrest over an apparent attempt to blow up a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
Every passenger flying into an American airport will now be subjected to an extra “pat-down” body search and will have their hand luggage examined at terminal gates by airline staff just before they board.
The measures were imposed indefinitely by the Transportation Security Administration within hours of the incident.
The new checks are in addition to those already carried out by airport security. Until now, this extra level of security has been applied only to a small proportion of randomly selected passengers.
The American government has ordered strict enforcement of the limit of one piece of hand luggage for each passenger. Airlines have been told that all travelers should remain seated for the final hour of any flight to an American airport.
Most flights from Heathrow and Gatwick to America were delayed by nearly three hours Saturday afternoon. Four flights bound for Miami around midday were delayed by almost four hours.
A British Airways (BA) spokesman said conditions were “challenging”, but added that no services were canceled.