Airports across the country experienced major delays Tuesday after a Federal Aviation Administration facility in Georgia that processes flight plans for the Eastern U.S. developed communications problems due to software issues, the FAA said.
FAA officials were not sure what kind of software glitch caused the problems, but most of the delays at airports were cleared up by 5:30 p.m., spokeswoman Diane Spitaliere said.
No planes were in danger and there were no safety issues involved in the communications breakdown. Officials were able to talk to pilots in the air and on the ground.
An FAA facility south of Atlanta experienced a glitch in its communications link that transmits flight plans to a similar facility in Salt Lake City. The Salt Lake City site then had to process the flight plans, causing the delays in planes taking off. There were no problems with planes landing.
Ms. Spitaliere said that the Salt Lake City facility was handling the new workload, but FAA officials were not sure when the Atlanta facility would operational again.
“We are still looking at it,” she said Ms. Spitaliere. “We want to do a thorough analysis before we bring it back up.”
Ms. Spitaliere said she did not know how many flights were delayed.
The main cause of the delays was the repeated input of flight data into the Salt Lake City facility after the Atlanta facility went down, which caused the system to slow down.
“Right now, it is not critical to bring the Atlanta system back up,” said Ms. Spitaliere. “We are doing just fine with just Salt Lake City.”
The FAA also said that the communications problems were not related to the other problems the system has had in the past.
Officials at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport said they were not seeing widespread delays or cancellations because of the FAA communications problems.
But Cheryl Stewart, spokeswoman for Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport said that the airport was experiencing some delays, the Associated Press reported.
Ms. Bergen said an FAA facility south of Atlanta experienced a glitch in its communications link that transmits flight plans to a similar facility in Salt Lake City. The Salt Lake City site then had to process the flight plans, causing the delays in planes taking off. She said there were no problems with planes landing.
Chicago Midway Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport experienced the longest delays, with some planes waiting on the runway for up to an hour.
However, weather was also a factor at both airports. Most of the airports that saw delays were located in the Northeast.
The Associated Press reported delays at Miami International Airport and Tampa International Airport in Florida.
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