The departure of some 6,000 passengers from Beijing Capital International Airport was delayed Tuesday by a computer system failure.

The computerized boarding pass system was closed down for an hour beginning 11:15 a.m., delaying 60 flights.

Passengers waited anxiously at boarding gates, asking when their flights would take off. "But we were unable to answer them,"said ground service staff member Du Hongyu.

Gu Min, who was due to leave for southwestern Chongqing at 11:30 a.m., was told to take a flight at 1:40 p.m. but was still waiting at the airport around 4:00 p.m.

Deputy general manager of the airport group Wang Jiadong said maintenance staff had started fixing the system immediately after the breakdown. A backup system enabled boarding to resume an hour later.

The problem eased by 4:00 p.m. and Wang predicted that all delayed flights and held-up passengers would take off by 5 p.m.

( People's Daily July 23, 2002)