A technical problem forced thousands of passengers to leave their luggage behind and face long lines at Oslo Airport Thursday.

Travelers had to choose between getting to the gate on time and leaving their bags behind because of a broken X-ray machine in the airport's older terminal.

Thousands of abandoned bags piled up as many decided to leave their luggage in the departure hall upon receiving an assurance from the airport staff that passenger's belonging will be sent after them as soon as possible.

According to the airport statement, Nordic SAS and Widerøe Airlines were hit the hardest.

The cause of the technical problem with the X-ray machine is so far unclear, and Oslo Airport is currently working on a solution, Norwegian broadcaster NRK reported.

90,000 passengers were expected to travel from the airport Thursday, and airport officials refrained from making any assumptions on how many of them were affected.

Most of the travelers were frustrated and even described their experience as "Third World traveling."

The airport officials turned to mobile X-ray machines, and slowly started to allow some bags to be sent onward.