Glitch At Leesburg Causes Flight Delays

Disgruntled passengers said their flights were re-routed or there were dozens of planes ahead of theirs in line to take-off. It planned to provide updates when more information was available. Federal authorities said there was no indication that hackers had breached the system. The agency said the routing system was restored to service about 4 p.m. Saturday.

Flights that were affected by the glitch were those travelling into and out of Washington DC airspace.

Dubbed the “Flypocalypse” on social media, the weekend saw about 492 delays and 476 cancellations related to the technical problem, the agency said via the AP. “There are widespread impacts on airline flight operations throughout the regions”, said Jonathan Dean, a spokesman for Baltimore’s airport. Just after 2 p.m. EDT, the agency said the system was back online. “It’s really killing us”.

The two hardest hit airports were Reagan Washington National Airport and Baltimore Washington global Airport. By contrast, about 25 percent of inbound and outbound flights were canceled at National and BWI. It said an estimate of the number of flights delayed or canceled was not yet available. We have to make last minute adjustments to flight plans.

“This is a really, really big deal”, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said at the press conference, adding that ERAM is “the backbone” of the NextGen project. Aircraft flying at this level use a different air traffic control system that remained functional.

“I think everyone realizes this is out of our control”, he said.

Fisher, 64, rescheduled her Southwest flight for 9:25 p.m. Saturday. A flight to Chicago and a flight to Las Vegas also were delayed Saturday afternoon. She received sympathy but no guarantees.

Air traffic was snarled and passengers’ tempers frayed as many flights to and from airports throughout the north-eastern United States were delayed or cancelled.