FAA Computer Glitch Knocked Out Electronic Flight Information

Nov. 19, 2009— -- A Federal Aviation Administration computer outage early Thursday morning caused nearly 2,000 more flight delays than occur on a typical day, according to data compiled by FlightAware.com and reviewed by ABC News.

The problem began shortly after 5 a.m. ET this morning when a single circuit board failed in an FAA computer center in Salt Lake City. That meant air traffic controllers around the nation were no longer receiving information about flights electronically.

The FAA immediately notified the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. military, which, since Sept. 11, 2001, is supposed to receive FAA radar images showing the location of every plane in the air.

But ABC News has learned the military was not getting some of that information during the computer outage and, as a precaution, began using an AWACS surveillance plane as an extra eye in the sky.

Controllers reached by ABC News said during the outage they had to rely on phones to receive flight information and manually enter data, such as aircraft call signs, requested altitudes and flight routes, into their computers. The result was a slowdown of takeoffs and landings at airports around the country.

"It's time-consuming and cumbersome," National Air Traffic Controllers Association vice president Victor Santore told ABC News of the process. "It was a step back years from the technology we use today, where the flight plans are all displayed on a computer screen."

The airlines' flight plans tell air traffic controllers the anticipated route and altitude of each flight after taking off.

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Controllers say the computer systems were also not receiving weather information, as normally occurs.

"Anytime any piece of equipment that we use fails, it's a little bit unnerving," said Santore.

While flights continued to take off and land during the outage, they did so at a delayed pace, causing planes to back up on the ground and in the air. Passengers whose flights were cancelled were left scrambling for travel options.