Automated immigration clearance down at Changi Airport, Woodlands & Tuas checkpoints on Mar. 31 due to technical glitch: ICA

It's all back to normal now.

Alfie Kwa | April 01, 2023, 06:09 PM

Follow us on Telegram for the latest updates: https://t.me/mothershipsg

The automated immigration clearance at Changi Airport terminals, as well as Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints were down on Mar. 31, 2023.

The issue start at around 10:40am.

In its latest update on the matter, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) revealed that the cause was a technical glitch during a pre-scheduled system upgrade.

Service progressively resumed and full normalcy was restored at about 4pm.

ICA's investigations

Preliminary investigations found that the technical glitch had caused an "unanticipated system overload."

This caused automated clearance lanes at all departure terminals at Changi Airport to be affected, as well as the arrival terminals at Terminals 2 and 4.

Parts of immigration clearance at Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints were down too, such as all automated lanes for motorcycles and certain automated lanes for departing and arriving bus passengers.

Managing queues

ICA said it immediately activated its business continuity plan and travellers were redirected to manual counters for immigration clearance.

Off-duty officers were also recalled immediately, and these additional resources were deployed to man all the manual immigration counters and perform crowd control.

Travellers were advised through the Expressway Monitoring and Advisory System and radio broadcasts, as well as through ICA’s Facebook page, to factor in additional time for immigration clearance.

ICA apologised for the inconvenience caused, and thanked travellers for "their understanding, patience, and cooperation with [their] officers on the ground".

"We are conducting a thorough investigation and will be putting in place additional safeguards to prevent reoccurrence," the authority added.

Top images via Mothership reader and One Motoring.