System failure: Thousands of passengers stranded as software glitch grounds flights across the US
Multiple airlines are recovering from a computer glitch that left thousands of flights delayed and hundreds canceled across the US. Stranded passengers voiced their frustrations on social media.
The outage involved Aerodata, a computer program that records a plane’s weight and balance information necessary to grant clearance for takeoff, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Without the computer-generated paperwork, planes stayed grounded across the country early on Monday morning.
AeroData is currently experiencing a technical issue that is impacting multiple carriers. We appreciate your patience during the wait.
— American Airlines (@AmericanAir) April 1, 2019
At least five airlines were affected: Delta, Southwest, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and JetBlue. All in all, 1,442 flights were delayed and 151 canceled, according to FlightAware. New York’s LaGuardia Airport, Boston’s Logan International Airport, and Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport were the three worst affected hubs.
Grounded passengers tweeted their frustrations at the airlines.
@Delta flight DL 6210 to Detroit says delayed until 7am...has the tech issue been resolved, or is my app going to tell me it’s been delayed again even further? 😡
— Robert Riley (@IrishDreamTeam) April 1, 2019
Got to the airport at 5am. have been sitting on this @SouthwestAir flight for an hour now. All flights grounded across the country due to system outages. I wish this was an April fools’ joke. Send positive vibes. pic.twitter.com/sOPQvz9n2X
— Kelly Le (@kellyrodle) April 1, 2019
Seriously @delta - your regional carrier computer glitch won’t let us shut the door to the jet bridge and thus we will be delayed an hour and a half. Happy Monday
— Adam Piper (@adampiper) April 1, 2019
The glitch was later resolved, but lingering delays are expected as the airlines resume normal operations.
UPDATE: The issue has been resolved. Contact individual #airlines for information on specific delays. https://t.co/5irxFMwRu7
— The FAA (@FAANews) April 1, 2019
The outage comes a week after technical issues with Sabre, a company handling ticketing and reservations for at least 300 airlines and 100 airports, forced multiple carriers to delay flights as staff manually checked in passengers.
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