[flexcoders] I don't understand why I'm getting this compiler error

[elevight]

I'm getting a compiler message saying "Event 
type 'events.CustomEvent' is unavailable", and I don't understand 
why. I'm hoping a second eye might catch the problem.

My custom event class is called CustomEvent.as: (the dao.Person class 
is just a dummy class that stores a firstName, middleName, and 
lastName, and I was going to see if the data in this object will be 
available in my 'testEvent' handler).

package actionscript
{
        import dao.Person;
        import flash.events.Event;
        
        public class CustomEvent extends Event
        {
                public var person:Person;
                
                public function CustomEvent(person:Person, 
type:String)
                {
                        super(type);
                        this.person = person;
                }
                
                public override function clone():Event
                {
                        return new CustomEvent(person, type);
                }
        }
}

I'm trying to dispatch the above custom event from a test component 
called TestComponent.mxml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:TextInput xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml";>

<mx:Metadata>
        [Event(name="testEvent", type="events.CustomEvent")]
</mx:Metadata>

<mx:Script>
        <![CDATA[
                import actionscript.CustomEvent;
                import dao.Person;
                
                public function fireAway():void
                {
                        var p:Person = new Person
("John", "Missing", "Doe");
                        var e:CustomEvent = new CustomEvent
(p, "testEvent");
                        this.dispatchEvent(e);
                }
        ]]>
</mx:Script>

</mx:TextInput>

And finally, here is my MXML application that's supposed to test all 
this and is called CustomEventsTest.mxml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"; 
layout="absolute"
        xmlns:c="components.*">

<mx:Script>
        <![CDATA[
                import actionscript.CustomEvent;
                import components.TestComponent;
                
                private function clickHandler():void
                {
                        testComponent.fireAway();
                }
                
                private function testEventHandler
(event:CustomEvent):void
                {
                        trace("It got here to testEventHandler.");
                }
        ]]>
</mx:Script>

        <mx:VBox>
                <!-- ***************************** -->
                <c:TestComponent id="testComponent" 
                        backgroundColor="yellow"
                        testEvent="testEventHandler(event)"/>
                <!-- ***************************** -->
                <mx:Button id="btnFireEvent" 
                        label="Fire Event" 
                        click="clickHandler()"/>
        </mx:VBox>
        
</mx:Application>

The compiler error message is complaining about the c:TestComponent 
between the two lines of asterisks. Can anyone see why the compiler 
is telling me 
why CustomEvent is unavailable?

Thanks in advance for your time.