The new year was off to a rocky start Monday night when a temporary computer outage of U.S. Customs and Border Protection systems caused travel delays at airports across the country, USA Today reports. The outage, which lasted for four hours, caused issues in Chicago, Boston, New York City, Baltimore, Miami and Atlanta.
"U.S. Customs and Border Protection experienced a temporary outage with its processing systems at various airports today beginning at 5 p.m. EST and ending at approximately 9 p.m. EST. All airports are currently back on line," the agency told USA Today. "CBP took immediate action to address the issue and CBP officers continued to process international travelers using alternative procedures at airports experiencing the disruption. Travelers at some ports of entry experienced longer than usual wait times as CBP officers processed travelers as quickly as possible while maintaining the highest levels of security.
"During the technology disruption, CBP had access to national security-related databases and all travelers were screened according to security standards. At this time, there is no indication the service disruption was malicious in nature,” the agency said.
U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow called the incident “disturbing.”
“Technology at these facilities is too outdated to cope with existing travel volume, let alone the increased traffic we hope and expect to see at our gateway airports in years to come,” Dow said in a written statement.
"The headaches this inflicts upon American travelers is bad enough, but policymakers should be especially mindful of the effect on international visitors. The U.S. customs and entry process is already notorious for dissuading long-haul visitors from dealing with the hassle of coming here, and lost inbound travelers means lost export dollars at a time when our economy can ill afford that.
"A modern system is not only more efficient, but more secure, and both of those are very worthy priorities in the current security and economic environment. Let's not forget that we have seen this problem before, and it is all too likely we will see it again if we keep failing to learn from these mistakes."