United Airlines has grounded all flights out of the US and Canada for a second time in a month amid growing safety concerns.
The airline asked the Federal Aviation Authority to issue a ground stop due to a technological issue overnight.
All flights were grounded for around 30 minutes. United told the Daily Mail it ‘experienced a brief connectivity issue just before midnight Central time on Tuesday’.
The airline said it has ‘since resumed normal operations’.
United operates 4,000 to 5,000 flights per day, meaning the stoppage likely caused travel hell for hundreds of thousands of passengers.
The Daily Mail has asked whether the flights stopped included those which were already in the air, or just pending departures.
It marks the second time in a month that the US operator has asked for a halt to departures over an undisclosed ‘technical glitch’.
United flights were also brought to a stop in August at several busy US airports including Newark, Denver, Houston and Chicago.
United Airlines has grounded all flights out of the US and Canada for a second time in a month amid growing safety concerns. The airline told the Daily Mail it asked the Federal Aviation Authority to issue a ground stop due to a technological issue overnight
The ground stop caused chaos for passengers at airports across the United States
In early August, passengers across the US were faced with a similar scenario when the FSS issued a ground stop for United Airlines flights at five major airports.
The stoppage impacted Chicago, Denver, Newark, Houston, and San Francisco.
United Airlines told Daily Mail at the time that ‘a technology issue’ was the reason for the stoppage.
‘Due to a technology issue, we are holding United mainline flights at their departure airports,’ United said in a statement.
‘We expect additional flight delays this evening as we work through this issue. Safety is our top priority, and we’ll work with our customers to get them to their destinations.’
According to data from FlightAware, 1071 United Airlines flights were delayed and 67 were canceled.
The airline told Daily Mail that the technology issue was not a cyber attack, as it cited a problem with the ‘weight and balance computer system.’
This ground stop did not appear to affect planes that are already in the air, ABC’s Sam Sweeney reported. Those planes continued to their destinations as planned.
This is a breaking news story with updates to follow.
