A recent report makes a shocking revelation that shortly after the opening of Terminal 5 at the Heathrow Airport, a considerable number of international passengers could enter the UK without passing through a security check. It is told that either the airport operator BAA or the staff of the British Airways would have been responsible for this mistake during the highly chaotic opening of the new terminal in the month of March 2008.

Notably, three groups of passengers were found misdirected and were let to pass through domestic arrivals. However, later the error was picked up only when the list of arriving passengers was cross checked against the Home Office security lists.

According to a government spokesperson, serious inquiries into the list could find no passengers who posed a security risk. In a response given in writing, the immigration minister Liam Byrne noted, "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."

On the whole, records stand as a proof to the fact that the international passengers arriving at the terminal were led to pass through the domestic arrivals by mistake during five separate instances during the months of March and April.

According to Byrne, British Airways has supplied the necessary details pertaining to those passengers enabling the UK Border Agency checks and Metropolitan Police checks, which he said could be conducted if necessary. Byrne too has stated that the authorities have ordered for a review of the mistakes.