United Airlines experienced delays for hundreds of flights at airports across the country Wednesday because of a systemwide computer problem affecting flight plans, the latest in a series of technical glitches for major airlines.
The problem, which arose early Wednesday morning, slowed down the creation of flight plans for airline crews and employees, delaying but not canceling flights, United spokeswoman Erin Benson said.
The computer issue was fixed around noon Wednesday, Benson said, but delays continued into the afternoon.
"It has been resolved," she said.
The flight plan delay is the latest computer issue to affect United and its passengers. On Jan. 22, the airline was forced to ground all domestic flights for 2½ hours because of a problem with the system used to send pilots technical information needed before flights can depart.
At Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, the totals continued to climb throughout the day Wednesday, with 125 United flights listed as delayed as of 4 p.m., according to the live flight-tracking website FlightAware.
Similar delays were reported at airports across the country, with 146 United flights delayed at Newark Liberty International; 108 at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental; and 54 at Washington’s Dulles International, among others.
"Flight plans were being created; flights were landing and taking off," Benson said. "There was just a delay in getting those plans."
John Meola, 49, an information technology administrator from Jersey City, N.J., told the Tribune he was stuck at the gate on United Flight 1502 from Newark to Havana for more than a hour Wednesday morning before passengers were told to deplane.
"The pilot said they couldn’t get their flight plan," Meola said.
Meola, who was headed to Havana on a Spanish-language immersion program, said he was frustrated by the delay and by the lack of guidance from the airline. He and some of his fellow passengers were in a holding pattern at a bar across from the boarding area, waiting to see when their flight might take off.
"It’s particularly frustrating to me as an IT person that something like this can happen," Meola said.
He finally boarded his flight and took off around 1 p.m. EST — nearly three hours after the scheduled departure.
United is not the only airline plagued by recent computer problems. On Jan. 29, Delta Air Lines suffered a 2½-hour computer outage that grounded 170 flights and left passengers stranded across the country.
Last summer, both Delta and Southwest Airlines canceled thousands of flights in separate computer failures that disrupted their schedules for days.
rchannick@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @RobertChannick
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