United Airlines suffered a major computer system failure on Wednesday evening, grounding hundreds of flights and leaving passengers stranded at airports and on runways across the United States.
“Due to a technology issue, we are holding United mainline flights at their departure airports,” the airline said in a statement, as it worked to restore operations.
At United’s request, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued temporary ground stops for the airline’s flights at major hubs including Chicago, Houston, Denver, Newark, and San Francisco. The directive did not apply to regional jets operated by the airline’s partners.
Passengers took to social media to report being stuck on planes either at gates or on tarmacs, with some flights forced to return to the terminal so passengers could deplane. While the outage primarily affected flights on the ground, planes already in the air continued to operate as normal.
“We expect additional flight delays this evening as we work through this issue. Safety is our top priority, and we’ll work with our customers to get them to their destinations,” the airline added.
The incident is the latest in a series of tech-related meltdowns affecting U.S. carriers. In 2022, Southwest Airlines cancelled nearly 17,000 flights during the Christmas travel period following a winter storm and internal system failure, leaving more than 2 million passengers stranded. Last summer, Delta Air Lines faced a similar crisis when a faulty software update triggered mass cancellations.
United has yet to specify the nature of Wednesday’s outage or when full operations would resume. Travelers are advised to check their flight status and expect residual delays.
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