MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, FLA. (WSVN) - An outage affecting computer systems used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection caused delays at Miami International Airport, Monday night.
Officials said the issue started at around 7:30 p.m. and lasted about two hours, leading to longer lines and frustration among international travelers.
Passengers arriving from other countries expressed their aggravation to 7News. “Angry, tired, frustrated,” said one traveler. “It’s the holidays.”
One traveler did not mince words when expressing his opinion about MIA. “Worst airport ever, terrible. TSA is a joke,” he said.
Fritz Kron, who arrived from Curacao, said, “Came in, it was a delayed flight, and we thought, you know, quick through immigration, New Year’s — how bad can it be? It was a huge line. The man said it was gonna take three hours. That’s about as long as our flight.”
Another traveler described what caused her to wait longer than usual. “None of the passport machines worked. We all had to stand in line for hours,” she said.
Erbesti Carrabza arrived from Honduras and said there was no direction from the staff. “I believe there were more than four flights in the same spot,” he said. “There were no people telling us where to go or what to do.”
Many passengers who were only meant to pass through MIA on their way to their final destinations ended up missing their connecting flights.
“I missed my connecting flight,” said traveler Jennifer Martin, “but then it was delayed, and I’m gonna miss it again ’cause I don’t know where to go.”
“Mine boarded at 9:10, and it’s leaving now,” said traveler Esther Charles.
The outage affected airports across the country, including Los Angeles’ LAX, where passengers experienced long lines and short patience.
Customs and Border Patrol tweeted Monday after the outage, saying, “All airports are back on line after a temporary outage of CBP’s processing systems.”
All airports are back on line after a temporary outage of #CBP’s processing systems. During the disruption, CBP had access to national security-related databases and all travelers were screened according to security standards. No indication the disruption was malicious in nature.
— CBP (@CBP) January 2, 2018
Airport officials said everything is back to normal and travelers shouldn’t experience any more unusual delays.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.