Sydney airport branded 'a clown show' after power outage caused chaos by shutting down computers and security screening

A terminal at a major Australian airport came to a grounding stop Friday morning after a reported power outage shut down computers and security screening procedures.

Frustrated customers at Sydney Airport took to social media to vent their frustrations, when power dropped at terminal two, taking aim at the airport.

One person posted to X - formerly known as Twitter - claiming: 'Clown show is currently in progress ... time for it to be taken back into public hands.'

Another said technology seemed to have stopped working at the bag drop at a Virgin Australia terminal.

'Computers stop working, security screening stations not working, lights dropping out ... and yet flights are still closing and leaving despite some very distressed people in the lines!,' they wrote.

One other user said that the airport was going to find themselves out of pocket thanks to the outage.

''Gonna be a lot of compensation for a lot of customers,' they wrote.

A Sydney Airport spokesperson however said that it didn't take long to get back up and running and no flights should have been missed.

'Earlier this morning there was a brief power outage that temporarily affected some check-in and security processes,' they said.

'Power was quickly restored and there have been no knock-on impacts to airport operations or flight departures.'

This was disputed by one Virgin passenger though on Twitter.

'My flight left without me, but I was rebooked onto a flight tonight,' they wrote. 'Not everyone was so lucky as there were only a couple of seats left to Brisbane today.'

A Virgin spokesperson said they were sorry for any disruption customers faced, but said the incident was out of their control.

'We are aware of a Sydney Airport power outage affecting all airlines operating in Terminal two,' they said.

'We regret the inconvenience this has caused our passengers and we are working hard to recover any guests impacted by the airport outage.

'We will refer you to Sydney Airport for any queries you have on the possible cause.'