Flights Delayed in Northeast U.S. After FAA Center Outage

Flights are being delayed in the Washington region due to technical issues at a Federal Aviation Administration center in Washington. “Flights in and out of the three major D.C.-area airports may be delayed”.

“The FAA is diagnosing an automation problem at an air traffic center in Leesburg, VA”, the agency said in a statement.

The problem also affected planes that were in the sky at the time of the computer problem, with “high-altitude traffic” diverted around the center’s airspace, FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said.

The FAA finished installing the troubled computer system in the last of 20 high-altitude traffic control centers earlier this year.

Southwest Airlines said some of its flights at airports in Richmond and Norfolk, Virginia, and at North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham global also saw delays and cancellations.

Kate Smith, of Bethesda, Maryland, was sitting on a JetBlue plane at Boston’s Logan global Airport on Saturday, trying to get home to her two cats after a vacation in Boston and Maine.

“We are directing high altitude traffic around the affected airspace, the FAA said in the statement”.

“There are widespread impacts on airline flight operations throughout the regions”, said Jonathan Dean, a spokesman for Baltimore’s airport tells the AP.

BWI warned passengers to check with airlines for travel updates as the issue was being handled. The problem is not believed to be caused by any accident or hacking.