LOS ANGELES--Computer problems at a major air-traffic control
center for the Western U.S. prompted delays of more than two hours
at Los Angeles International Airport, temporarily stopping takeoffs
at the busy hub and a number of other fields.
The Federal Aviation Administration said an equipment failure
forced officials running the Los Angeles "en route
facility"--located in Palmdale, Calif.--to stop accepting flights
into its airspace "for about an hour" midafternoon Wednesday. But
the problems had a cascading impact on air traffic throughout the
region and nationwide.
The Palmdale facility handles traffic in southern and central
California, southern Nevada, southwest Utah and western Arizona.
FAA officials didn't elaborate on the technical issues that led to
the delays.
The agency said some incoming flights to the region were
diverted, and issued a nationwide "groundstop," or temporary halt
to takeoffs, for all flights heading to the affected area. Nearly
two hours after the delays first cropped up, an FAA spokesman said
the agency was gradually restoring the system.
At Los Angeles International, which suffered some of the
heaviest delays, officials said all takeoffs were temporarily
halted and the problem of some planes being diverted added to the
disruptions for travelers. On average, arrivals at the airport were
delayed for about 15 minutes, according to the FAA's website.
Late Wednesday, LAX officials said more than 210 arriving
flights and roughly the same number of departing flights were
delayed at the airport, with roughly 70 additional flights diverted
or canceled. Tens of thousands of passengers were affected, though
no international flights were canceled.
The computer outage also affected San Diego International and
McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, as well as a number of
smaller airports in the region.
The outage was expected to disrupt the roughly 2,000 flights
slated to arrive or depart the region covered by the affected
control center, starting from 2 p.m. local time in Los Angeles to
the end of Wednesday schedules, said Mark Duell, vice president of
operations at FlightAware.com, a flight-data firm. To limit the
number of aircraft headed for the region, controllers are imposing
longer than usual spacing requirements, he said.
An American Airlines Group Inc. spokesman said that "service is
being restored" at the air-traffic control center and officials
"are trying to get something back up as fast as they can." American
diverted three flights to Phoenix because of the outage.
At the height of the delays, Las Vegas McCarran and Salt Lake
City International experienced gate holds for departing flights of
90 to 105 minutes, according to the FAA's Air Traffic Control
Command Center website.
Delta Air Lines Inc. said it was experiencing departure delays
at LAX and diverted three flights to Salt Lake City as a result of
the FAA outage.
A statement from Los Angeles International Airport didn't
indicate the cause of the problems and said local officials didn't
know when traffic would return to normal.
A spokeswoman for United Continental Holdings Inc. said the
airline experienced delays at LAX, but couldn't immediately
quantify them.
Write to Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com, Susan Carey at
susan.carey@wsj.com and Jack Nicas at jack.nicas@wsj.com
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