American Airlines IT outage: FAA grounds all non-air-borne American flights as system goes down
American Airlines was hit by a massive IT outage on Tuesday afternoon prompting the FAA to issue a ground stop for all non-air-borne American flights.
It started with reports of users on social media and on Down Detector, a platform that tracks such outages based on users’ reports. Users complained that the American Airlines user-end systems were not working, which included the carrier’s app and website. As many as 1500 people reported issues with the American’s platforms on Down Detector.
Shortly afterwards, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a ground stop for all American Airlines aircraft that are not currently airborne, impacting American travelers in the United States and across the world.
According to the advisory, the ground stop was in effect from 6:30pm EDT to 7:30pm. EDT on July 28, with all destination airports and facilities included. Flights already airborne were not affected, and the FAA said it expected an update by 7:30pm EDT.
American Airlines has also acknowledged the issue on their social media handle. In response to a flyer’s query, the American Airlines’ X account wrote: “We’re currently experiencing a systemwide IT outage. Our IT team is working to get everything restored as quickly as possible.” As of now, the world’s largest carrier has not revealed what caused the outage.
Radar data showed that American Airlines aircraft were stacked in airports and were not moving amid the IT outage.
American Airlines carries more than 500,000 passengers every day on average, making it world’s largest airline by passengers carried and daily flights.
This story is being updated.