United Airlines’ Computer System Down, Flight Delays Springing Up Nationwide

(Adam Fagen)

Travelers trying to fly to anywhere from anywhere on United this morning are being met with delays, confusion, and misinformation as a massive computer system outage has struck the airline.

Passengers who do not already have hard (printed) copies of their boarding passes in hand are unable to check into flights, passengers are telling media, with different sets of United staff delivering different messages to early-morning passengers around the country.

The FAA has published an advisory that due to “user request due to automation issues,” no United Airlines traffic from any airport will be allowed to depart until at least (but possibly after) 13:15 UTC, which is 9:15 a.m. Eastern time.

Disgruntled passengers from coast to coast and everywhere in between tweeted their frustrations this morning as they were unable to check in, unable to get boarding passes, and unable to clear security:

Our @united airlines pilot on their global outage. "It's like someone pulled the plug on our computers – It's embarrassing, I apologize ."

— Betsy Fischer Martin (@BFischerMartin) July 8, 2015

.@united check in computers at @Bradley_Airport appear to be down. Localized or national? @NBCConnecticut http://pic.twitter.com/vcVllS7Z6g

— Brad Luck (@BradLuckNBC) July 8, 2015

Hey @united, it would be great if you could get the computers working at @Fly_Nashville. No need for DMs. ^AG http://pic.twitter.com/jB36II68oB

— Adam Ghassemi (@AdamGhassemi) July 8, 2015

If anyone is flying United out of LAX this am – DONT BOTHER!! All Computers down!

— zoecadman (@zoecadman) July 8, 2015

And TSA at Dulles won’t accept the handwriiten @united boarding passes! More fun!

— James Fallows (@JamesFallows) July 8, 2015

.@United all your departure boards at Dulles say ‘On Time’; agents say no flights going anywhere until computers are back up.

— James Fallows (@JamesFallows) July 8, 2015

There is not yet any official word from United on what, specifically, the problem is or when they expect it to be resolved.

by Kate Cox via Consumerist