The reasons behind the system failure were still under investigation.

Airport regulators started back up computer systems at about 12:30 pm and resumed processing of boarding passes for passengers, said Wang Jiadong, vice-president of the airport.

He said noon is the peak travelling time for the airport, so the less than one hour's worth of computer problems made the waiting halls look crowded.

The one-hour paralysis left many planes stranded while landing planes continued to jam in. The airport authority had to scramble to find parking places for the arriving planes.

"This is the major reason why some passengers had to wait the whole afternoon before boarding their planes," Wang said.

Gu Min, trying to fly to Southwest China's Chongqing from Beijing, witnessed the chaos at the airport yesterday.

He said the waiting hall was over-crowded at about noon and passengers kept asking airport officials when they could board their planes.

Gu managed to change his ticket for a flight at 1:40 pm, but airport personnel later told him the flight had been cancelled and that he had to wait for the next flight.

"Most passengers had no clear idea of what happened. They were just continuously told to wait, wait, wait," he said.

Sources with the airport said most of the delayed passengers had been dispatched by yesterday evening, and aviation and computer experts were still investigating the computer glitches.

(China Daily July 23, 2002)