United Grounds All U.S. Flights Due to Computer Glitch
Usually flying United is a last resort; today it’s a total wash: the airline has reportedly grounded all flights across the United States because of a global computer “automation issue.”
It’s at least the second time this summer the airline has grounded flights over a computer problem.
“We experienced a network connectivity issue this morning,” United spokesman Luke Punzenberger said in a statement to the Boston Globe. “We are working to resolve this and apologize to our customers for any inconvenience.”
The FAA reported the ground stop early Wednesday morning.
The problem is apparently tied to United’s reservation system, SHARES, which forced the company to switch to manual processing for check ins and boarding.
Comm'n @united --'manually inputting all passengers, weight, cargo information and thus indefinite delays'????? #unacceptable
July 8, 2015
Via the airline forum flyertalk.com:
At CMH and the gate agent said that SHARES is down across the board. Every flight is delayed at the moment. Rough start to the day.
GA had to manually board everyone on UAL1537 from IAD-LAS. Pilots can’t get FP either. Could be a while. Oh well. We’ll see how this plays out.
just got deplaned....was told they put us on the wrong plane and they don’t know which plane we are supposed to be on, so hang out in the gate area until we can find your plane/gate
Departing DEN; taxied and then returned to gate. Pilot says nationwide failure of “three or four” computer systems. Only information from airport staff is that since the computers are down UAL can’t book pax onto any other airline ...
July 8, 2015 846a EDT United Airlines reservation system: SHARES kiosks down in IND & worldwide. All flights halted pic.twitter.com/dGQ3BagRUi
July 8, 2015
United says it’s in the process of rebooking affected passengers, though its not clear the company is doing that without access to its computer system.
The company experienced a similar ground stop in June, when “faulty flight information in the airline’s dispatch system” led to delays across the board. At the time, the company explained the delays were instituted “to ensure aircraft departed with proper dispatching information.”
Update 9:30 a.m.
Passengers report agents are still checking passengers in—using pen and paper.
Massive system fail: #FAA confirms #UA computers down nationwide. Ticket agents checking us in with pen & paper. #cnn pic.twitter.com/8YAIAEclYG
July 8, 2015
Update 10:00 a.m.
The ground stop has reportedly been canceled.
#BREAKING: @FAANews advisory cancelling groundstop for #UnitedAirlines. Flights now boarding. (via @WNEW)
July 8, 2015
Images via AP, ABC. Contact the author at gabrielle@gawker.com.