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Welcome to the U.S., foreigners

Add up all the hours lost.  It exceeds one normal human lifetime.  Isn't
that tantamount to murder?

>Computer glitch holds up 20,000 at LAX
>Passengers are delayed for hours on planes and in terminals after a
>customs processing system goes down.
>By Karen Kaplan, Rong-Gong Lin II and Ari B. Bloomekatz
>Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
>
>August 12, 2007
>
>More than 20,000 international passengers were stranded for hours at Los
>Angeles International Airport on Saturday, waiting on airplanes and in
>packed customs halls while a malfunctioning computer system prevented U.S.

>officials from processing the travelers' entry into the country.
>
>The U.S. Customs and Border Protection system went down around 2 p.m.,
>forcing some planes to sit on the tarmac for so long that workers had to
>refuel them to keep their power units and air conditioning running.
>Maintenance workers ran trucks around the airport hooking up tubes to
>service lavatories.
>
>Just after midnight Saturday, Tom Winfrey, a spokesman for Los Angeles
>World Airports, said the computer system was up and running. As of 2 a.m.,

>377 passengers were still being processed. At 3:40 a.m., customs was still

>processing the last seven people — one passenger in a wheelchair and six

>crew members — all from the last flight to arrive early Sunday: Mexicana

>Airlines Flight 922 from Guadalajara, Mexico.
>
>The last passengers cleared customs at 3:50 a.m. That did not include six
>travelers detained because of passport or agriculture questions.
>
>"This is probably one of the worst days we've had. I've been with the
>agency for 30 years and I've never seen the system go down and stay down
>for as long as it did," said Peter Gordon, acting port director for custom
s.
>
>The delays also jammed airport parking lots. As of 3 a.m., some lots were
>still completely gridlocked. The congestion was so bad that at 3:30 a.m.,
>customs spokesman Michael D. Fleming said he opted to stay at the airport
>rather than try to head home to Irvine.
>
>The computer system maintains a list of people who should be subject to
>secondary searches upon entering the country, explained Fleming. "The vast

>majority of people" do not pose a security threat, "but it only takes
>one," he said. "Obviously a lot of innocent folks have been detained, and
>it is regrettable."
>
>The malfunction affected only LAX, and customs said it was willing to
>divert flights to LA/Ontario International Airport, San Diego
>International Airport/Lindbergh Field or McCarran International Airport in

>Las Vegas. Later, Fleming said two flights had been diverted: An Alaska
>Airlines flight landed in San Diego and a Spirit Airlines flight from
>Mexico landed at Ontario.
>
>Passengers who are scheduled to depart from LAX today were urged to
>contact their airlines before going to the airport.
>
>Some of the delays rivaled the worst incidents of last winter, when severe

>weather left thousands of passengers languishing for up to nine hours on
>American Airlines and JetBlue planes. Sals Farsi, 39, his wife and three
>children spent seven hours waiting to get off a flight from Cabo San Lucas

>late Saturday night. They said they received formula for their 6-month-old

>when the captain radioed the terminal for it. "This was crazy," he said.
>
>When passengers emerged from planes tired and bleary eyed, they found most

>restaurants in the Bradley terminal closed or running low on food. The few

>restaurants still open had long lines of 30-40 people waiting. Paul
>Gysels, 60, of San Francisco, was loading up on beef jerky and Hershey's
>chocolate bars at a news stand. He had just spent five hours on the tarmac

>after a flight from La Paz.
>
>Even when he got off the flight, his troubles continued. He learned he had

>missed the last flight from L.A. to San Francisco. "Nobody's going to make

>it out of L..A. before me."
>
>On a British Airways flight from London that had been stuck at its gate
>for more than three hours, passengers "actually are being very patient,"
>said Ventura resident Mel Swope, who was returning with his wife, Judie,
>from their second home in Alet les Bains, France. Speaking from the plane,

>Swope added: "They're talking on cellphones to family and friends. But the

>natives are getting restless. People are missing connections."
>
>Coffee, soft drinks and water helped mollify passengers aboard an Alaska
>Airlines flight from La Paz, Mexico.
>
>"People are pretty positive about it — they realize these things happen,
"
>said Kelly Henderson, a high school math teacher from Lawndale who had
>been stuck on the tarmac for several hours. "Everyone's been behaving well
"
>
>But in the inspection area inside the Bradley terminal, an estimated 1,000

>passengers quickly emptied the vending machines and no water was available

>for at least four hours, according to an airport employee. By the time
>water arrived, children and elderly passengers were lying on the floor
>showing signs of dehydration. Water fountains were not accessible due to
>renovations in the terminal, and the only air conditioning was provided by

>three industrial fans with limited range, he said.
>
>Three people were transported to local hospitals after they fell ill from
>waiting so long in the terminals, according to the Los Angeles City Fire D
ept.
>
>The system serves five LAX terminals that handle incoming international
>flights, said Nancy Castles, a spokeswoman for Los Angeles World Airports.

>Airport and customs officials offered conflicting numbers of how many
>people were affected by the computer malfunction. Winfrey, of the airport,

>said about 11,000 people were directly affected; customs officials put
>that number at 20,000.
>
>By 10 p.m., customs officials estimated that 8,100 people were waiting on
>planes. Computers were functioning normally at three smaller terminals,
>but at Bradley, a backup system was running well below normal capacity.
>
>Customs officials were processing about 1,500 incoming passengers an hour;

>normally they process 2,800.
>
>By late evening, officials moved some passengers to domestic terminals
>while they waited to be processed through customs.
>
>Airlines send customs a list of all the passengers bound for the U.S. on
>international flights, and the federal agency combs through those lists to

>see if any travelers have been flagged by the Department of Homeland
>Security for special screening. With the computers down, customs cannot
>access that list, Fleming said.
>
>When passengers leave an international flight, they proceed through a
>hallway and must immediately get through customs before they can pick up
>their luggage at the baggage claim. There is limited access to benches or
>seats, and no gift shops or restaurants until passengers pass through cust
oms.
>
>Fleming said the stranded passengers were patient as customs worked to
>resolve the glitch.
>
>"We've authorized carriers to bring food and water onto airlines to make
>passengers comfortable," Fleming said. "I've been told there's air
>conditioning."
>
>Lancelot Barker, captain of Alaska Airlines Flight 211 from
>Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, Mexico, said the passengers on his plane were still on

>board an hour and a half after it had arrived at 6:30 p.m. His plane was
>parked near a gate, and it was not allowed to open its doors, he said.
>
>Barker said his flight attendants had already run out of food on the
>flight, and would run out of water at 8 p.m.
>
>"People are just swapping stories, wandering around the aisles," Barker
>said. "A lot of cellphones are out. People are trying to find out what
>other people have heard."
>
>But the conditions were deteriorating on the other planes, which had been
>stuck for as many as seven hours as of 8 p.m., according to radio traffic,

>Barker said.
>
>"Some people are grumpy about it and others are taking it in stride," he s
aid.
>
>On one Alaska flight, workers were racing to find baby formula for an
>infant, Barker said.
>
>Alaska operations were "passing the name of the formula" to other workers,

>who were trying to process it through customs, Barker said.
>
>By keeping passengers on the plane, said American Airlines spokesman Tim
>Smith, "at least we can. . . offer them beverages and water, rather than
>just standing in line."
>
>As late as 10:20 p.m., passengers arriving on an Eva Airlines flight from
>Mumbai were told they would probably have to stay on the tarmac for up to
>five hours, according to a passenger who e-mailed the Times from the plane