Homecoming Brits face airport delays as passport readers fail because the SUN IS SHINING
Bizarre fault in biometric sensors heaps misery on weary travellers as they arrive back in the UK
Few British holidaymakers would be saddened to see the sun shining as they arrive back on home soil.
But good weather is causing a nightmare for passengers at Stansted Airport (pictured below) because dazzling sunlight is allegedly playing havoc with its hi-tech e-passport readers.
The airport's passport hall faces west, meaning it is drenched with beautiful light whenever the sun begins to set.
However, the rays are reportedly stopping the passport reading machines from scanning people's faces properly.
Ralph Gross, from the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, said facial recognition devices were often flummoxed by sunlight.
“It’s got better at dealing with challenging illumination situations, but it will still struggle in this light," .
Biometric passports store data about travellers' appearance and are designed to cut down on forgery and fraud.
Normally, this speeds up passport control because a computer is used to scan details, rather than a human.
Yet the technology doesn't always work when the sun is pouring in through Stansted's windows.
To combat the issue, the airport has installed 15 more e-passport reading gates, doubling the total number to 30.