Computer glitch grounds US planes

Air travellers around the United States scrambled to revise their plans after a computer glitch at the government's aviation agency caused widespread cancellations and delays for the second time in 15 months.

Airports in Europe reported no immediate problems.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the problem, which lasted about four hours, was fixed around 9 am, but it was unclear how long flights would be affected.

It started when a single circuit board in a piece of networking equipment at a computer center in Salt Lake City failed around 5 am, the FAA said in a statement.

That failure prevented air traffic control computers in different parts of the country from talking to each other. Air traffic controllers were forced to type in complicated flight plans themselves because they could not be transferred automatically from computers in one region of the country to computers in another, slowing down the whole system.

Two large computer centers in Salt Lake City and near Atlanta were affected, as well as 21 regional radar centers around the country.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world's busiest, was particularly affected. The problem also exacerbated delays caused by bad weather in the Northeast, with airports in the Chicago, Washington, DC, and New York metro areas reporting problems.

Some flights were more than two hours behind schedule. Airports around the South also reported delays and cancellations.

US Sen. Charles Schumer said the country's aviation system is "in shambles" and the FAA needs more resources to prevent such problems from continuing.

"If we don't deliver the resources, manpower, and technology the FAA it needs to upgrade the system, these technical glitches that cause cascading delays and chaos across the country are going to become a very regular occurrence," he said in a statement.

Passengers were asked to check the status of their flights online before going to airports.

AirTran canceled at least 22 flights and delayed dozens more. Delta Air Lines was also affected. American Airlines spokesman Tim Smith said several hundred flights would be delayed.

Continental Airlines delays averaged about an hour during the early part of the morning. JetBlue Airways said 25 of its flights at Kennedy International Airport had average delays of 60 minutes and delays at other airports were up to 30 minutes. US Airways flights were no longer being affected by the glitch by midday.

Houston's two airports and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport reported few delays but said things could get worse, especially for travelers headed east. Los Angeles International Airport also reported that delays were likely later in the day. Airports in Europe reported no immediate problems.

Houston's two airports and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport reported few delays but said things could get worse, especially for travelers headed east. Los Angeles International Airport also reported that delays were likely later in the day.

- AP