Thousands of international passengers were stranded at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on Saturday because of a computer failure.
The computer belonging to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection went down at about 2 p.m., causing some overseas flights to be diverted, airport officials said.
The system contains the names of arriving passengers and law enforcement data about them, including arrest warrants, said Los Angeles World Airports spokesman Paul Haney.
"That system allows our officers to make decisions on who we can allow to enter the United States," said Mike Fleming, a Customs and Border Protection spokesman. "You just don't know by looking at them."
At 9 p.m., federal officials were holding approximately 6,000 passengers on about two dozen international arriving aircraft until they can be cleared through the five Federal Inspection Stations at LAX, according to an airport statement.
All aircraft were parked at locations where they were connected to ground power, and passengers had access to food, water and toilet services, said airport officials.
Because of the backlog, some passengers became ill, and other terminals were affected as they were used to house international passengers until they could be processed.
Authorities said flights were delayed and some were diverted to other airports.
Customs officials had resumed processing arriving passengers and the computers were online again at 9:15 p.m., aiport officials said.
But it was not immediately known how long it would take to clear the backlog of arriving international passengers, authorities said.
Source: Xinhua
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