Aerodata, a flight planning weight and balance program had a catastrophic computer failure that forced the aeronautical authorities of the United States to delay more than 500 flights at the nation’s main airports.
The technical failure has changed the daily routines of Chicago, New York, Boston, Texas, Miami and Atlanta airports.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement that “several U. S. airlines are experiecing computer issues” due to a flight plan cargo management program called Aerodata. Both general and regional operations have been affected to different degrees.
Airlines that have reported problems include United, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, American Airlines and Delta.
The Flight Track information site reported more than 400 Southwest Airlines flights delayed and more than 100 of JetBlue.
Southwest Airlines sent a press release in the early morning warning that “scattered flight delays are anticipated ” and recommended passengers to check its website to verify the operations status
Earlier, the company issued an order to suspend flights for 40 minutes, but later announced that it had already been lifted.
As a result, operations at some of the country’s major airports, such as La Guardia in New York, Dallas Fort Worth in Texas and Logan in Boston, are behind schedule.
Delta, meanwhile, explained that a brief third party technology issue has already been resolved.
“No cancellations are expected due to the issue and our teams are working to resolve some resulting delays.” the company explained on Twitter.
However, at other airports, such as Baltimore, delays were still reported in dozens of flights as airlines were trying to regain normality.
The issue comes weeks after the FAA suspended all US operations of Boeing 737 Max model following the accidents that two of these planes suffered recently in Indonesia and in Ethiopia and whose circumstances are still under investigation.
Translated by : Jose Espinoza
Noticias Newswire
