FAA inputs flight plans manually because of computer glitch

The number of U.S. airports — and travelers — experiencing flight delays continued to grow this afternoon as the Federal Aviation Administration worked to resolved a problem with a computer system.

So far, LAX has not been affected, but that may change as the day wears on and the ripple effect spreads across the country.

The foul-up “occurred in a facility in Atlanta and affects flight plans for a certain area of the United States,” said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor.

“As a result of the computer problem, we are inputting flight plans manually instead of automatically, which is leading to delays in certain parts of the country because air carriers cannot take off without having filed flight plans.”

Safety is not at issue, Gregor said, and the problem is “not affecting all flights or all airports,” he added.

CNN, however, reported that “every major airport in the United States is experiencing flight delays this afternoon.” CNN also reported that the FAA experienced a similar problem in June 2007 that caused delays along the East Coast, although an FAA spokesman disputed that.

— Catharine Hamm, Times Travel editor

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 2:15 pm by Catharine Hamm and is filed under Business Travel, Frequent Flier, Last Minute, News, Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.