Taipei - A computer breakdown at Taipei's international
airport that caused chaos and forced immigration officials to
hand-record departing passengers' data and passengers to form long
queues was finally fixed on Tuesday, officials said.
'After repair and testing, both the computer systems at Terminal
One and Terminal Two of the airport have resumed normal operation,'
said Chung Ching-kun, a spokesman of the National Immigration Agency.
The computer glitch, which lasted 36 hours since early Monday
morning, prompted Immigration Minister Hsieh Li-kung to show up at
the Taoyuan International Airport near Taipei to supervise repair
work.
'We will do all we can to resolve the problem as soon as
possible,' he told reporters at the airport.
He said to prevent blacklisted or criminal suspects from seizing
the opportunity to flee Taiwan, his agency had provided copies of the
list of suspects barred from leaving Taiwan to all immigration
officials operating at the immigration counters for identification.
Chung said immigration authorities would immediately conduct
computer checks of some 40,000 hand-recorded data entries made by
immigration officials in the past 36 hours for comparison with the
blacklist.
As queues of departing passengers became longer, the airport had
opened all its 48 counters at Terminal One and 42 counters at
Terminal Two to speed up customs clearance and prevent flight delays,
airport officials said.
Monday's computer glitch came one day after the baggage-handling
system at the airport's Terminal Two malfunctioned, causing more than
100 pieces of luggage to miss flights.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story