United Airlines said Tuesday that a software update caused a glitch that forced a nationwide suspension of departures and temporarily crippled one of the nation’s largest airlines on a busy day.
Federal officials said United Airlines crew members were unable to contact airline dispatchers through normal means.
“A software update caused widespread slowdowns of United’s technology systems,” United Airlines said in a statement. The airline said this was not a cybersecurity issue.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which manages the country’s airspace, said it had asked United to suspend its departures across the United States. The FAA said the issue was limited to United and its subsidiaries.
United Airlines said the ground stop, which did not affect planes already in flight, lasted just over an hour.
On the East Coast, United Airlines had canceled just seven flights by late Tuesday afternoon, significantly lower than the average of about 16 flights per day during the busy Labor Day weekend, according to statistics from the tracking service FlightAware.
But on a day when many holiday travelers were expected to fly home, more than 350 flights, or 13% of United Airlines’ schedule, were delayed, leaving rivals American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines It was much more than that.
Southwest Airlines is similar power outage In April, all departing flights were grounded for about an hour, and more than 2,000 flights were delayed.
The FAA temporarily suspended all departures from the United States in January. system used to warn pilots No safety issues occurred.agency blamed the contractor The file was accidentally deleted while synchronizing the alarm system and its backup.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has criticized airlines over the past year for operational issues and other issues, said Tuesday that the FAA is “receiving further information about the cause and extent of the problems and that the Department of Transportation is ensuring that (United Airlines) does not comply with its obligations.” We will do our best to ensure that this is implemented.” to affected passengers. ”
The FAA is part of Buttigieg’s Department of Transportation.
Shares of Chicago-based United Airlines Holdings fell on news of the grounding, closing 2.5% lower.