A malfunction in the Ministry of Justice's Advance Passenger Processing System (APPS) caused disruptions for about two hours and 20 minutes, leading to flight delays at airports nationwide.

According to the Ministry of Justice and Incheon International Airport, the Ministry's APPS malfunctioned at around 6:05 a.m. today (Nov. 3), causing airline check-in counters connected to the system across the country to become inoperable.

The APPS was restored at around 8:25 a.m.

The APPS is a system that receives passenger information from airlines and determines in real time whether a passenger is cleared for departure before boarding passes are issued.

The Incheon Immigration Office instructed all airlines to switch to manual ticketing at around 6:20 a.m., 15 minutes after the system failure occurred.

Some congestion occurred as airline staff verified passenger information manually, and in the case of Incheon Airport, the fallout delayed the departures of nine flights.

The Ministry of Justice reportedly suspects that the glitch occurred after accessing a database (DB) server during the process of replacing outdated storage for its border control system.

An official from the Ministry of Justice stated, "We are currently investigating the exact cause of the malfunction."

(Photo: Yonhap News)