South Florida

Delays at South Florida Airports After US Customs and Border Protection Outage

A multi-state outage for Customs and Border Protection that was affecting travelers at South Florida airports Monday evening was fixed after a few hours.

Travelers reported being stuck in long lines at both Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

An official for MIA said passengers on more than 30 international flights that arrived after 6 p.m. were affected by the outage.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the outage started at 5 p.m. and ended at 9 p.m. The CBP said in a statement that it took "immediate action to address the issue." Officials said there was no indication the outage was malicious in nature.

One traveler at MIA, Carlos Rico, told NBC 6 that two people passed out while waiting in line. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue responded to Customs to treat travelers complaining of heat, fatigue and exhaustion. Miami International Airport tweeted that its A/C was on the coolest setting.

A man traveling from Montego Bay, Jamaica had a connecting flight to St. Louis which he missed due to the outage. "They were having to do everything manually. They didn't try to expedite people trying to get a connecting flight," said Michael Desyllas. 

The outage was also affecting Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Logan International Airport in Boston. 

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