Outbound flights at several major airports in the Southwest U.S. were stalled Wednesday afternoon due to a software failure in the Federal Aviation Administration’s modernization technology.
The FAA’s website were caused by a failure in the En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) software, which is “the heart of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) and the pulse of the National Airspace System (NAS).”
Las Vegas and Salt Lake City airports were also impacted by the software glitch. The FAA lifted the ground halt after an hour of delays.
An on the FAA’s site lists delays more than two-hour delays at LAX and more than an hour delay at both Salt Lake City and Las Vegas due to this failure.
Denver International Airport is not experiencing any technical problems, but a spokeswoman said that its outbound flights to the affected airports may be delayed.
“The FAA’s Los Angeles Center air traffic control facility experienced technical issues and stopped accepting additional flights into the airspace managed by the facility for about an hour,” the FAA said in a statement.
“Some flights were diverted and the agency issued a nationwide groundstop for flights heading into the airspace managed by the center. The agency is gradually restoring the system.”
This story will be updated as more information is made available.
Kristen Leigh Painter: 303-954-1638, kpainter@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kristenpainter
