On Wednesday, 8 July, there was a network failure that affected United Airlines flights for nearly two hours!
“An issue with a router degraded network connectivity for various applications, causing this morning’s operational disruption,” United said in a statement to USA TODAY. “We fixed the router issue, which is enabling us to restore normal functions.”
The computer malfunction reportedly affected several flights across the country, preventing people from getting to their destinations.
Some of the people delayed include members of the under-19 U.S. women’s national basketball team who were scheduled to travel to Spain for a tournament, USA Today reports. It was also reported that the situation at the Denver International Airport was so tense as hundreds of passengers waited in lines to rebook flight.
Although the airline staffs tried their best to lighten up the situation, display boards showed one-hour delays for most flights.
Jeh Johnson, secretary of Homeland Secretary and former general counsel of Defense Department, told the Center for Strategic and International Studies that the technical anomalies that occurred today at the United Airlines and New York stock exchange “were not the result of any nefarious actor”.
The airline has since apologised for the delay and has tried to make progress in restoring normal operations. Affected passages were not charged for rescheduling as well.
USA Today reveals that the Port Authority stated that “UA has resumed normal operations”. However, Port Authority advised United fliers to “reconfirm” their flights with the carrier.