A computer glitch affected border controls at Paris’ Roissy-Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports at midday on Saturday, causing longer-than-usual waiting times for passengers.
“A national border police cut is currently affecting checkpoints departing and arriving at Paris-CDG and Paris-Orly. Longer waiting time expected,” Aéroports de Paris tweeted around midday.
It was not immediately known if this disruption also affected other airports or sectors.
“It is shameful”
Images posted on social media showed long queues of passengers waiting at Paris airport controls, floating in the water or sitting on the ground.
Around 2:00 p.m., the computer system in question was back up and running, the Interior Ministry told AFP. Just before 3:00 p.m., the ADP group reported a “gradual return to normality.”
Coming from Martinique, a passenger assured AFP that she had spent almost two hours in line at Orly, where “1,500-2,000 people” did not advance an inch.
“It’s embarrassing, people are starting to freak out, especially parents with children. No one from ADP (Aéroports de Paris) has come to tell us anything!” Anouk testified by telephone, who preferred to hide his name.
With general nervousness, the travelers began to bang on the glass doors of the air locks, he later reported. Border Police (PAF) officers opened them and carried out passport controls manually to ease the congestion.
“Everything is in order to make the situation as difficult as possible for travelers. Water distributions are in place and agents have been deployed to answer travelers’ questions,” a porter told AFP, ADP’s word. .
The blackout was caused by an operation by the inter-ministerial digital department, which coordinates the information systems of the administrations, in the state inter-ministerial network, a source familiar with the matter told AFP.
Source: BFM TV
