UPDATE: Customs and Border Protection announced at 6:30 p.m. that the affected systems were back online and that there was no indication that the disruption was “malicious.”
International travelers were stuck in reportedly huge lines Friday afternoon at Newark Airport after a nationwide Customs and Border Protection (CBP) computer outage.
The outage caused people at Terminals B and C at the airport to be processed manually as they went through customs which led to delays, according to a tweet from the airport.
The cause of the outage was not immediately clear and there was no word as of 5:45 p.m. as to when the problem would be fixed.
CPB tweeted that the outage was “temporary” and that the problem was being addressed and later added that its officer were working to get travelers through lines as quickly as possible “while maintaining the highest levels of security.”
People at Newark Airport took to Twitter to vent their frustrations Friday evening.
However, the long lines were also scene at other local airports, such as Philadelphia International Airport where Joe Martella posted a photo of what customers were dealing with around 5 p.m.
Gigantic lines were also seen at JFK Airport in several videos posted to Twitter.
Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrisrsheldon Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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