Technical glitch causes delays at US airports
A computer glitch is being blamed for exceptionally long immigration queues at several US airports yesterday.
Delays affected passengers arriving in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston and Atlanta.
Officials said there had been a US Customs and Border Protection ‘technology disruption’.
The outage lasted for more than two hours late on Monday.
CBP officials said there was no impact on national security and it doesn’t believe the system had been hacked.
“During the technology disruption, CBP had access to national security-related databases and all travellers were screened according to security standards. At this time, there is no indication the service disruption was malicious in nature,” CBP said in a statement.
Passengers vented their frustration in numerous tweets. Kristin Klingshirn tweeted while still on a plane after arriving at Atlanta: “Update from pilot….because customs computers are down…we are the 20th plane in line for a gate.”
Melinda Henrickson tweeted at Miami Airport: “Lady next to me is having a breakdown and there is a physical fight going on around the corner.”
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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