Customs and Border Protection computer outage leads to long lines at U.S. airports

U.S. Customs and Border Protection experienced outages at processing systems at international airports across the country for several hours on Friday afternoon, leading to long lines and delays. Some of the airports affected included John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., George H.W. Bush International Airport in Houston and Los Angeles International Airport.

Within three hours, the agency said in a statement that the issue was being "slowly resolved," but they could not estimate a time that it would be back up.

"There is no indication the disruption was malicious in nature at this time," the agency said. 

The agency said it would be using "alternative procedures" until the systems were back online. JFK Airport officials told CBS New York that agents were processing arriving flyers by hand. The airport said at 7 p.m. that the system was back online, but they were still delays due to the backlog. 

Images and video shared to social media showed long lines at several major airports.

In:
• John F. Kennedy International Airport