MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, FLA. (WSVN) - A computer glitch that caused a nationwide system outage from U.S. Customs and Border Protection appears to have been resolved but not before it caused lingering, hours-long delays at South Florida airports, Monday night.
All airports are back on line after a temporary outage of #CBP’s processing systems. No indication the disruption was malicious in nature.
— CBP (@CBP) January 3, 2017
According to MIA officials, the outage began at around 6 p.m. and caused delays to more than 30 international flights.
Tweets from both airports’ Twitter accounts warned passengers about the outage.
A tweet from FLL, however, confirmed the system was beginning to be restored, albeit slowly.
CBP system is being restored slowly. Thank you for your patience as we are still experiencing delays processing passengers.
— Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Int'l Airport (FLL) (@FLLFlyer) January 3, 2017
Passengers shared videos of the ordeal on social media.
“People are about to revolt upstairs any minute now,” said Miami resident Tony Garay.
Rob Lambert said he waited for hours as he traveled from Argentina.
“We were waiting, what, three hours?” Lambert said. “Yeah, about three hours, 15 minutes.”
Petter Pauper, who was traveling from England, said the staff was trying their best.
“It’s been under three hours now — thousands inside,” Pauper said. “Struggle to keep up. Staff doing their best.”
Lines continued to grow as the night wore on, and some passengers said their lines stretched nearly a quarter-mile long.
“I’ve never seen them that far back,” Garay said. “Second floor. They just kept going, going and going.”
@CustomsBorder system up & running. Will take time for passengers to be processed. Thx 4 UR patience. Many airports affected 2nite.
— Miami Int'l Airport (@iflymia) January 3, 2017
Garay was traveling from Montego Bay. He said customs agents were processing passengers manually, one by one.
“My sister-in-law that got here three hours before us? They just got out right now,” he said.
Some passengers experienced health issues as they waited and waited.
“People were fainting all over the place,” William Phelps said. “The air conditioning was down. People fainting here and there.”
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue treated about six people for heat and fatigue, but no one required transport to the hospital.
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