Thousands of passengers at Vancouver's airport faced lengthy delays Friday after a security breach forced officials to hold flights departing from the international terminal.

The incident occurred around 11:20 a.m. PT during the busiest time for international flights, resulting in a backlog of about 3,000 passengers and at least 10 flights. The gates finally reopened at 2:45 p.m. PT.

The problem started when a man carrying too much liquid through security left the secure area to give the liquid to his family, said Anna Karina Tabonar, spokeswoman for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority.

"He went back to the pre-board screening checkpoint, where he was supposed to fall in line to be rescreened," she told CBC News Friday.

However, instead of being rescreened, the man went straight through the checkpoint.

"Perhaps he didn't realize that he needed to be rescreened," she said.

"As a precaution, we've closed the operations in the international terminal to locate this passenger," Tabonar said.

The airport removed all the passengers waiting for international flights from the terminal and rescreen them all.

Domestic and incoming flights were not affected by the shutdown.

With files from the Canadian Press