United grounds all flights nationwide due to ‘automation issues’. Update: United back online

[MerryBlooms]

Last edited Wed Jul 8, 2015, 10:09 AM - Edit history (2)

CHICAGO — United Airlines has grounded all its planes because of “automation issues,” according to a Federal Aviation Administration notice.

An FAA spokeswoman said the airline is having computer problems.

United told CNN at an Iowa airport that there is a system wide computer issue and tickets had to be handwritten for passengers at that airport.

A WGN viewer tweeted us a photo of a pilot at O’Hare Airport passing out coffee to passengers waiting in the gate area.

http://wgntv.com/2015/07/08/united-grounds-all-flights-nationwide-due-to-automation-issues/

(They're back up, but man, the delays are going to be brutal)

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Glitch? Or hack? Hmmmm n/t

[MerryBlooms]

2. Either way, it's one heckuva mess-- I feel for both the passengers and employees.

[riversedge]

3. golly-what will cable chat about now???

[petronius]

4. I was on an American Airlines flight a few months ago that sat at the gate for 30 minutes

because the pilots were unable to download their charts and navigation data to their iPads (according to the PA announcement), and it was apparently a system-wide issue as well - no flights departing until it was fixed.

I imagine this is the wave of the future, as systems become larger and more interlinked...