Travel Nightmare Unfolds For United Passengers
Hundreds of flights across the United States were delayed or canceled on Tuesday due to a major equipment failure at United Airlines.
United Airlines officially requested a 40-minute ground stop from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) beginning around 12:20 pm ET Tuesday. This resulted in a major disruption to all United and subsidiary flights operating in the United States. The airline informed passengers via social media, “We are experiencing a systemwide technology issue and are holding all aircraft at their departure airports. Flights that are already airborne are continuing to their destination as planned.”
This short-lived but significant ground stop has been a source of concern for travelers, who have experienced increasing airline reliability issues in recent months. Just a month ago, the FAA experienced a major system failure which caused hundreds of cancelled or delayed flights nationwide.
In response to Tuesday’s incident, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg took to social media to say he was aware of the situation and offered resources to those affected. “If you are impacted,” he wrote, “flightrights.gov has information about customer service commitments enforced by our department when airline problems cause you to experience major delays or cancellations.”
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who was in-flight on a United plane when the ground stop occurred, pledged to look into the airline issues.
At the time of writing, there is no concrete confirmation as to what actually caused the issue, but a spokesman for the FAA stated that the problem has to do with United’s “internal computer systems” and is “not an air traffic control issue.”
United Airlines has apologized for the incident and rebooked and refunded affected passengers. They have also announced an internal review of the incident to determine the cause and source, in order to prevent similar disruptions in the future.
As it stands, these recent issues have caused travelers to be more mindful of their flying choices and to ask more questions about the inner workings of the airline industry. The hope is that United Airlines and other carriers can find a solution to prevent such major disruptions from occurring in the future.