FORT WORTH, Texas - A computer glitch grounded American Airlines flights from coast to coast for two hours Sunday morning before the problem was corrected, a company spokesman said.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Diane Spitaliere said she believed the glitch also affected US Airways. Representatives of the airline did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Spitaliere said the FAA was alerted to the problem Sunday morning, and both carriers asked the FAA's air traffic controllers to help communicate with planes to keep them on the ground until the problems were fixed.
The operating system that drives the airline's flight plans went down about 6 a.m. CDT and was restored shortly after 8 a.m., spokesman John Hotard said.
"We did what we call a ground stop and all flights were grounded," Hotard said. "It's a computer problem and it is now back up, so we have resumed operations."
The grounding affected about 150 flights, he said.
American planned to run its full daily schedule of 2,400 flights, but delays were expected.
"All flights could run up to two hours behind," Hotard said.
A few incoming international flights were in the air at the time of the grounding and continued to their U.S. destinations, he said.
Hotard said the problem was purely technological.
