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From Time:

It hasn’t exactly panned out like that. Thursday’s opening was a disaster. British Airways, the sole carrier operating from the terminal, canceled 34 flights, owing to computer glitches, human error and, according to airport officials, “initial teething problems.” There were also staff shortages: some employees struggled to get through security checkpoints, while others couldn’t find the employee parking lot. Only one of the terminal’s eighteen elevators was functioning, and at least one handicapped passenger was left stranded curbside — for an hour.

Terminal 5, which took two decades of planning and construction, boasts 11 miles of baggage conveyors as part of a state-of-the-art system designed to handle up to 12,000 bags an hour. And yet seven flights left on Thursday without luggage. By the early evening the airline had suspended check-in luggage because the terminal’s conveyor belt was clogged, and arriving passengers waited up to four hours to reclaim their luggage. Angry scenes reportedly erupted in passport control and baggage claim areas as disgruntled passengers pushed and shoved.

I had the pleasure of listening to the live BBC reports early morning while the terminal was opening, before any flight was scheduled to depart. What struck me was that even just for the small traffic load of the reporters arriving at the terminal caused a small traffic jam for parking.

The only thing worse than a failure is a slow failure you can watch unfold.