FAA computer glitch causing nationwide delays clearing up

— -- The Federal Aviation Administration said flight delays caused by a glitch at the Georgia facility that processes flight plans were "clearing up quite nicely" at some three dozen major airports around the country Tuesday evening, but officials continued to rely on a backup computer system.

Hundreds of airline flights from Chicago to the East Coast were delayed when the FAA computer system that processes flight plans went down shortly after 1 p.m. A backup system continued to operate, but it could not keep up with the volume.

Delays were heaviest at Chicago O'Hare International, Chicago Midway, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International and Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall airports, said Hank Krakowski, head of the FAA's air traffic division.

"It looks like we're slowly starting to dig out of this," Krakowski said.

At 5 p.m., the FAA had not yet tallied how many flights were held up because of the computer problem. Most airlines reported minimal disruptions.

"Things are improving," said Richard Walsh, spokesman for Massport, which operates Boston Logan International Airport. "We expect it to get better." Flights in and out of Logan dropped by 50% at one point, he said.

While some airports experienced frustrating slowdowns, most delays were "relatively brief," said Basil Barimo, vice president of the Air Transport Association, the large airlines' trade group.

Flights were delayed because the FAA's radar system cannot function unless a flight plan has been filed. The agency's radars functioned normally throughout the day, but an automated system that feeds flight plans to the radar system failed, the agency said.

An FAA website that tracks airport status showed delays at such airports as New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York's LaGuardia, Chicago Midway, Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson and Boston Logan. The FAA advised passengers to check departure airports to see if their flights had been affected.

FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the problem that occurred Tuesday afternoon involves an FAA facility in Hampton, Ga., south of Atlanta, that processes flight plans. She said there was a failure in a communication link that transmits the data to a similar facility in Salt Lake City.