ATLANTA – An outage in the system of the agency meant to protect the nation’s borders has caused major delays at airports across the United States.
According to a spokesman with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, officials in Atlanta responded to a computer system outage Monday night that lasted about an hour. The outage is apparently over in Atlanta and agents are back to processing arriving international travelers. However, other airports continued to report outages.
It comes on a day when many holiday travelers were returning home.
It didn’t take long for word about the issue to spread across social media, though. Travelers reported problems from all across the U.S.: from Chicago to Boston to Baltimore to right here in Atlanta.
lololololol the customs hall at Boston airport is too full for us to get off the plane cool
— Molly Templeton (@mememolly) January 3, 2017
@BWI_Airport waiting after long journey with exhausted 18 month old because your customs server is down. Worrying and stressful.
— Alex McRae Dimsdale (@amcraedimsdale) January 2, 2017
Theres currently a line a little more than 1/8th of a mile long (and growing!) at customs at the Atlanta airport
— Joseph Shlanta (@JShlanta) January 3, 2017
stuck in customs in atlanta, systems down nation wide. I have never seen this. cyber attack? pic.twitter.com/yKydriZZ1e
— Serge Kassardjian (@sergekass) January 3, 2017
This is at @ATLairport right now! All Customs systems are down nationwide. @11Alive @wsbtv @JulieWolfe pic.twitter.com/zErVxod060
— Suitcase & Stamps (@Suitcase_Stamps) January 2, 2017
NBC News reported agents had to process arrivals by hand due to the systems being down. Some on Twitter reported wait times of several hours.
Stuck in customs at Atlanta. "National outage of customs system. No one can leave or enter the country by air. 3-5 hr wait." @CustomsBorder
— Alberto Villarreal (@BetoVillarreal) January 3, 2017
The spokesman for the agency told 11Alive they won’t have numbers on how many travelers were affected for at least a few days, but NBC News reported more than 30 international flights were affected at Miami International Airport, and at least two people passed out while waiting in line.
People getting hot and unhappy. pic.twitter.com/JHqyFsb9Il
— John M. Phillips (@JohnPhillips) January 3, 2017
The official also did not mention a potential cause to what he described as a minor issue.
Are you experiencing delays? Tweet your photos and wait times to us at @11alivenews or share them on our Facebook page.
PHOTOS | Outage affects travelers at U.S. airports
BREAKING: US Customs outage impacting Houston's @iah Bush Airport - long lines of international passengers waiting amid processing delays https://t.co/IkPdjCq5Qh
— Janet Shamlian (@JanetShamlian) January 3, 2017
