Failure of U.S. customs computer system leaves thousands of travelers waiting

WASHINGTON – A nationwide collapse of the U.S. customs service computer system left thousands of passengers lined up at airports awaiting clearance to enter the country, authorities said Monday. "Customs and Border Protection has nationwide outage. Expect delays in passenger processing until the system is restored," said Fort Lauderdale's airport, a major hub for the United States and Caribbean, on Twitter. A Customs and Border Protection department spokesman told NBC News that there had been a disruption at several airports and was "taking immediate action to address the technology disruption." After a few hours of trouble, the glitch was fixed. "All airports are back on line after a temporary outage of CPB's processing systems.