FAA Glitch Causes Widespread US Air Travel Delays

Caleb Raehl, 3, of Manassas, Va., waits in line with his parents Matthew Raehl, left, and Rebecca...

Caleb Raehl, 3, of Manassas, Va., waits in line with his parents Matthew Raehl, left, and Rebecca Raehl, to be re-booked after their AirTran flight was canceled due to an FAA computer glitch, at Washington Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Va. on Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

(AP)

The glitch slowed flight plans collected by the FAA for traffic nationwide at its centers in Salt Lake City and Hampton, Ga., outside Atlanta.

It was reminiscent of a software malfunction that delayed hundreds of flights around the country in August 2008.

In that episode, the Northeast was hardest hit by the delays because of a glitch at the Hampton facility, which processes flight plans for the eastern half of the U.S.

The FAA said at that time the source of the computer software malfunction was a "packet switch" that "failed due to a database mismatch."

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Associated Press Writers Joan Lowy in Washington, Marcus Franklin in New York, David Koenig in Dallas, Joshua Freed in Minneapolis, Johnny Clark and Dionne Walker in Atlanta, and Matt Barakat in Chantilly, Va., and videojournalist Bonny Ghosh in Newark, N.J., contributed to this report.

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