FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A computer glitch is being blamed for hundreds of delayed or canceled flights at airports across the Eastern seaboard, with ripple effects stretching to South Florida.
The problems started around 1 p.m. Saturday.
The Federal Aviation Administration released a statement, saying, "The FAA is diagnosing an automation problem at an air traffic center in Leesburg, Va. Some flights into and out of the New York and Washington, D.C. metro area airports area may be delayed. We are directing high altitude traffic around the affected airspace."
The effects could be seen from photos off Flightradar24. One photo showed a screenshot of flight patterns at the same time Friday. Saturday's shot shows a large hole with no flights above or around Virginia.
"I was supposed to go home Friday night, got delayed because the crew wasn't available," Jean Cowan said. "Then we were supposed to fly out this morning and the pilot wasn't available. Then we got on the plane and were told the radar wasn't available. So, here I am."
There is a bit of good news providing relief Saturday evening. In a tweet from Reagan National Airport, it's been announced that the FAA issue has been resolved, but some residual delays were expected from Saturday's outage.
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