A fire alarm triggered at Gatwick Airport’s North Terminal on the evening of Wednesday June 28 caused the evacuation of the terminal and the re-screening of passengers. The alarm was reportedly caused by a technical fault, and there was no fire.
However, the incident caused extended delays for passengers forced to undertake the re-screening process, with the subsequent cancellation of a scheduled flight service reported.
Wednesday evening incident
The incident began when the fire alarm sounded in the North Terminal around 7.00PM on Wednesday evening. Passengers were evacuated from the Terminal and gathered outside, where they waited for further instructions.
Some frustrated passengers took to social media to express their annoyance.
One passenger noted the chaos but handed easyJet a compliment saying: “There is madness here at Gatwick north terminal after the fire alarm.”
“We got inside the plane after 90min delay and now we have to leave to go through security again. I’m blown away by how helpful and understanding and nice @easyJet crew has been with us updating us and caring.”
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Fire alarm activated
Gatwich Airport’s Twitter account confirmed the evacuation and advised passengers to check with their airlines for updates on their flights.
According to the Gatwick Airport account: “A fire alarm was activated, and the terminal was evacuated.”
“Passengers that had then re-entered the terminal into the departure lounge and onto some flights without being screened. For security reasons, they had to be withdrawn and put through screening.”
The re-screening meant that passengers were required to go through the security screening process again, which caused significant delays. Some passengers reported waiting for several hours to pass through security.
With the re-screening process completed, the North Terminal facility reopened to passengers. However, the incident did cause some flight disruption as well as the inconvenience to passengers.
According to local news source Sussex News, easyJet EJU8091 scheduled to depart for Palma Mallorca at 9.45PM was cancelled.
Gatwick Airport said that it was working to get passengers on their way as quickly as possible and apologized for the inconvenience caused by the incident.
