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From CNN:
United Airlines resumed operations Sunday night after a computer problem temporarily grounded all domestic mainline flights, two sources familiar with the incident told CNN.
"The ground stop has been lifted," the airline announced on Twitter. "We're working to get flights on their way. We apologize for the inconvenience to our customers."
Earlier, United spokeswoman Maddie King told CNN that the flights were grounded due to an IT issue.
"We have issued a ground stop for all domestic mainline flights due to an IT issue," King said. "We are working as quickly as possible to resolve this issue and get our customers to their final destinations. We apologize for the inconvenience to our customers." Mainline flights are those operated by an airline's main operating unit, not regional alliances or subsidiaries.
The sources said the flights were grounded due to a problem with the communication system that airplanes use to send information to United operations. Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or ACARS, is used to record and transmit a range of information, including departure times, as well as weight and balance, which is used to calculate takeoff speeds.
The system outage was an issue for planes that had yet to depart, as pilots need this information to safely take off. Planes already in the air were in no danger, the sources said. The issue did not affect communications between planes and air traffic control.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Tuesday January 24 2017, @02:26AM
U.S. officials told NBC News that the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or ACARS, had issues with low bandwidth. No further explanation was immediately available for what United described only as "an IT issue."
-- http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/all-united-airlines-domestic-flights-grounded-computer-outage-n710596 [nbcnews.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by Sulla on Tuesday January 24 2017, @02:51AM
Going to channel my cable company FIL here,
This is why we need data caps. All these high usage users are using up all the bandwitch by not paying for it and hurting great American companies. We need to restrict normal users to low amounts of usage to keep open the majority for business, where it is needed.
What do you mean build more lines, thats not our responsibility. If people want to use more than their fair share they can lobby their representative.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 4, Touché) by Justin Case on Tuesday January 24 2017, @11:18AM
Because it takes about a gigabyte per plane to transmit the departure times, as well as weight and balance, and receive back the calculated takeoff speeds. It's probably a GUI thing.
Wait, what? The pilot doesn't know how fast the plane needs to go to get airborne, and relies on a failure prone computer network for that number?
Remind me when computers emerged from being a new, experimental technology and were shown to be reliable enough that we could trust our lives to them.