What's going on with American Airlines?

[MaineDem]

I heard the end of a report saying they had grounded all their flights. The aa.com website says "Updates for gate, arrival, and departure information are currently unavailable. We are working to correct this as soon as possible and apologize for the inconvenience."

I can't find any details.

[Bronco69]

1. I have a flight on American this morning!

I guess I better find out! Thanks for the heads up.

[MaineDem]

4. Good luck

Hopefully it's nothing too serious.

[NMDemDist2]

2. not much detail in the CNN report, only that they had a

technical glitch?

[Ivote]

5. American Airlines & American Eagle Are Grounded

News Conference at 9:30 am est
so far not much more info on this.

[Bronco69]

3. I went to their website and all I could find was this message...

"Due to a technical issue previous updates for gate, arrival, and departure information may have been inaccurate. Please recheck Gates, Time, & Status for updated information. We apologize for the inconvenience."

[greatauntoftriplets]

6. Weird....

My tinfoil hat wonders if their computer system has been hacked, thus make flight control impossible.

:tinfoilhat:

[johnfunk]

7. Could be...

... do they use Microsoft software? I would not be surprised if some 13-year-old pimply-faced "tairist" geek managed to hack into their servers.

[cal04]

8. Technical Glitch

from cbs marketwatch:AA, US AIRWAYS FLIGHTS FACE 2-HOUR DELAYS - AP


FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - A computer glitch grounded American Airlines flights from coast to coast for two hours Sunday morning before the problem was corrected, a company spokesman said.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Diane Spitaliere said she believed the glitch also affected US Airways. Representatives of the airline did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Spitaliere said the FAA was alerted to the problem Sunday morning, and both carriers asked the FAA's air traffic controllers to help communicate with planes to keep them on the ground until the problems were fixed. The operating system that drives the airline's flight plans went down about 6 a.m. CDT and was restored shortly after 8 a.m., spokesman John Hotard said.

"We did what we call a ground stop and all flights were grounded," Hotard said. "It's a computer problem and it is now back up, so we have resumed operations." The grounding affected about 150 flights, he said. American planned to run its full daily schedule of 2,400 flights, but delays were expected. "All flights could run up to two hours behind," Hotard said.

A few incoming international flights were in the air at the time of the grounding and continued to their U.S. destinations, he said.

Hotard said the problem was purely technological.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBS3YW8DXD.html

[Scorpious_Maximus]

9. Windows XP

:argh: :puke:

[MaineDem]

10. Thank you

I knew they were having some labor issues last week. I'm glad - as bad as it is - that it was "just" a compute glitch.

[Nashyra]

12. Expand on your knowledge about labor issues to this AA employee

I work for American and have not heard one thing about labor issues that would remotely create a "grounding problem" as well does my husband who happens to be in DFW at Headquarters this week and he has not mentioned anything about "labor"

[MaineDem]

14. Poor choice of words on my part

I'm sorry.

I should have said the airline industry and not just AA, In fact, from what I've been able to find this morning, it appears AA was one airline not mentioned in any of the articles. Delta and USAir were both talking about the need for concessions from employees.

That'll teach me to listen to my husband before checking facts.

[DeepModem Mom]

11. Just called AA about a flight today; were told flights already on time...

although couldn't guarantee would continue on-time.

[SheilaT]

13. I caught a bit on

the news that said their computer system was down and pilots couldn't file flight plans and that's why everything was grounded.

I commented to my husband (an IT manager) that it sounded to me like they seriously needed a new computer system, and he said he thought it sounded more like they were in the middle of an upgrade.

Computers are truly wonderful, and unless civilization crashes, we're never going to go back to what it was like before we had them, but sometimes our dependence on them leaves us vulnerable in ways we never would have guessed before we got them.