Los Angeles International Airport control tower
Photograph ©2014 by Brian Cohen.

Customs and Border Protection System Outage Strands Thousands of Passengers at Airports Nationwide

A system outage of the Customs and Border Protection of the United States created a ripple effect of stranding thousands of passengers at airports nationwide from New York to Los Angeles — forcing passengers who are entering the country to be processed manually.

Customs and Border Protection System Outage Strands Thousands of Passengers at Airports Nationwide

The outage was first reported earlier this afternoon on Friday, August 16, 2019, according to this message posted at the official Twitter account of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York:

Just to let you know Customs is experiencing a system shutdown nationwide. They are processing passengers manually until the system comes back online. Thanks for your patience. *NV

This message posted at the official Twitter account of the Customs and Border Protection of the United States confirmed the outage:

CBP is experiencing a temporary outage with its processing systems at various air ports of entry & is taking immediate action to address the technology disruption. CBP officers continue to process international travelers using alternative procedures until systems are back online.

Another message was posted shortly thereafter

CBP officers are working to process travelers as quickly as possible while maintaining the highest levels of security.

…but the systems are reportedly returning to operation, according to this message posted at the official Twitter account of the government agency:

The affected systems are coming back online and travelers are being processed. CBP will continue to monitor the incident. There is no indication the disruption was malicious in nature at this time.

No indication has been given at the time this article was written that the disruption was malicious in nature — the cause of the outage is not yet known — and no airlines have issued any travel waivers or alerts.

Reactions from passengers — both with and without Global Entry, as well as people attempting to cross the borders at Canada and Mexico into the United States — include:

Summary

If you are at an airport which is crowded with passengers and were wondering why as no information was given, now you know.

This problem will hopefully be resolved as soon as possible so that travelers can get to their destinations as quickly as possible — but right now, many flights are delayed.

Photograph ©2014 by Brian Cohen.

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