United Airlines grounds U.S. flights

For United Airlines passengers at BWI or Reagan International early this morning, they got an eye-opening jolt when it was announced all of their U.S. flights had been grounded. Apparently a systems-wide computer glitch messed up the entire United Airlines computer system, giving flights faulty departure clearance information.

The delay began around 9 a.m. (EDT) and was finally lifted at 9:33 a.m. There was no information on how many flights were delayed nor if any flights were affected during takeoffs, landings or while in the air. The system appears to have been corrected, but it was reported that ticket agents were forced to hand-write tickets for passengers.

A passenger waiting at LAX tweeted at 7:20 a.m. (PDT) the first United Airlines flight leaving the airport after the grounding. (Twitter)
A passenger waiting at LAX tweeted at 7:20 a.m. (PDT) the first United Airlines flight leaving the airport after the grounding. (Twitter)

There was a similar incident with American Airlines back in April, as reported by USA Today. In that incident an iPad glitch was the problem. An APP designed to let pilots and tower personnel communicated via text messages stopped working.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) instituted a “NextGen” initiative to utilize new technologies for air travel. Now iPads are crucial components for airline navigation and other flight-related tasks.

A United Airlines spokesman said hackers did not cause the problem.

This story was first reported by Quartz and CNN.