Flights were being delayed and hundreds of people were waiting to go through security screening at Honolulu's airport on Tuesday after an active shooter scare.

Passengers who had already passed through screening and were boarding flights at Terminal 2 were told to go through security checkpoint again, which was holding up flights.

Hawaii transportation department spokesman Tim Sakahara told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser rumors of an active shooter appeared to be linked to a laptop that malfunctioned, popped and started giving off smoke at a checkpoint.

Leslie Ryan was on board an American Airlines flight to Los Angeles with her husband and two children when they were all ordered to get off the plane and go back through the security line.

Two hours later she was still waiting to go through security. She said hundreds of passengers around her in the airport's open-air lobby were doing the same. "It's hot and we finally got a little water," Ryan said.

People were spilling out onto the curb and sidewalk, she said.

Ryan said airport vendors and shops had to shut down and send their employees out to be rescreened as well.

United Airlines said it delayed four flights to provide passengers with enough time to go through security screening and board their planes.