United Airlines Flights Disrupted Across Major US Airports Due to Technical Malfunction

A significant technical glitch on Wednesday night caused United Airlines to temporarily ground flights across several major US airports, affecting hundreds of passengers.

United Airlines experienced widespread flight disruptions on Wednesday evening due to a technical malfunction, prompting a ground stop for its mainline flights. Major airports such as Chicago, Denver, Houston, San Francisco, and New Jersey were notably affected, leading to significant delays for travelers.

The airline reported that the issue arose around 22:00 EDT on Wednesday (02:00 GMT Thursday), but by that time, they announced that flights were no longer grounded, though ongoing disruptions were to be expected. "The underlying technology issue has been resolved, and, while we expect residual delays, our team is working to restore our normal operations," stated the company.

As per data from FlightAware, over 700 United flights had been delayed by 21:00 EDT (02:00 BST). Passengers who were already airborne during the outage were allowed to continue to their intended destinations without incident. However, United warned that regional flights might still experience delays due to residual traffic buildup as a result of the ground stop.

“It's been pretty rough over here,” passenger Jessica Jeffers shared with CNN, having been stranded on a flight in Denver for two hours while awaiting departure to Newark, New Jersey. Many others took to social media to express their frustrations, sharing experiences of being stuck on tarmacs with little communication about the situation.

United Airlines is treating the incident as a preventable delay, which means they will reimburse passengers for certain expenses incurred during the disruption, as reported by CBS News, the BBC's US partner. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy mentioned that the issue was not linked to the broader US air traffic control system, providing some reassurance amidst the chaos.