FAA: software upgrade, not ERAM, likely caused flight cancellations, delays

Thousands of air travellers at airports on the East Coast had their flights cancelled or delayed over the weekend, an incident that federal air safety regulators blamed on a technical problem at a Washington-area traffic control center.

Some 476 flights were cancelled and 492 were delayed on Saturday and Sunday because of the technical problem, which journeys from three Washington airports – Baltimore-Washington international Airport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Dulles international Airport.

The FAA said the software upgrade was to the En Route Automation Modernisation computer system, known as ERAM, at the control centre in Leesburg.

The Federal Aviation Administration’s flight-delay map also showed no significant problems.

Sunday was a better day for fliers, though residual flight disruptions were reported at a number of major airports.

“The FAA is continuing to diagnose the cause of yesterday’s problem, and has not seen a reoccurrence of the original issues”. The airline is urging passengers to plan accordingly.

Of the 633 American Airlines departures from Charlotte during the affected period Saturday morning and afternoon, 22 were canceled, airline spokeswoman Laura Nedbal said. But later, the pilot said there were too many flights at the lower altitudes and they would have to wait. The problem is not believed to be caused by any accident or hacking.

The FAA said “technical issues” at an air traffic control center in Virginia were to blame for the delay.

Miller Roberts, 40, of Dallas was trying to fly from Baltimore to Kansas City to set up a robotics display at the Missouri State Fair but was caught in a flight delay for more than four hours. Her flight was supposed to leave at 12:45 p.m., but the delays persisted by 2:30 p.m. He said that everyone probably realizes that things have gotten out of control.