'Computer Glitch' Causes Major Flight Delays And Cancellations In US

(RTTNews) - US media reports say flights are being delayed or schedules are canceled nationwide by a "computer glitch" within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating).

The FAA computer system, the Atlanta-based National Airspace Data Interchange Network, (NADIN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) which generates the flight plans for all flights on the East Coast, is affected by a malfunction.

FAA spokesman Les Dorr said that there's a "problem with the telecommunications network that's affecting automated processing system."

As a result, the entire Air Traffic Control system on the East Coast is slowed to about 40-50% of its normal capacity. The delay is caused because air traffic controllers must input flight data for each takeoff and landing manually.

Air traffic controllers are forced to increase the distance between flights, which subsequently reduces an airport's landing capacity.

The impact of the FAA computer outage Thursday morning appears to be spreading.

With delays now being reported at a number of major East Coast airline hubs and other busy airports, delays are likely to ripple out to other parts of the country.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world's busiest airport, was the worst-affected. Most of the departing flights are canceled.

The FAA warned travelers about a "ground stop" in effect for flights arriving to Atlanta. That halts Atlanta-bound flights at their point of departure until the situation improves. The FAA did not estimate how long that would remain in effect.

AirTran has canceled 22 flights and dozens more flights have been delayed in the morning.

Planes in New York City are being spaced out by about 20 miles, instead of the normal eight miles.

FAA said delays will occur until the problem is solved, but the safety of planes in the air is not affected.

Radar coverage and communications with planes are intact, it added.

FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said: "We are having a problem processing flight plan information. We are investigating the cause of the problem. We are processing flight plans manually and expect some delays."

Due to the disruption, air carriers had to send route plans to FAA by e-mail or fax.

According to the Aviation authorities, the problems lie within the FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure, or FTI. It provides the voice, data, and video communications that support operations and mission support functions at more than 4,000 FAA and Department of Defense (DOD | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) facilities. The network provides for more than 20,000 services such as switching and routing, network monitoring and control.

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