American Airlines Grounds Hundreds of Flight Due to Computer Outage

American Airlines grounded flights around the nation on Tuesday due to an outage of its main reservations system. The groundings left thousands of passengers stranded and airports and on planes.

The Federal Aviation Administration asked American to stop all of its flight until 5 p.m. EDT. On Tuesday due to computer issues. However flights to major cities such as New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami are grounded until 5:30 p.m.

"Any American plane sitting on the ground anywhere in the U.S." won't be taking off, said FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford according to Fox.

According to Flight-tracking service FlightAware.com, roughly 900 flights would face delays if American started back up again at 5 p.m. This would cause a further 800 flights to be delayed throughout the night as planes and crew members wouldn't be where they were supposed to on time.

The outage resulted in customers not being able to make reservations or rebooking if their flight was cancelled. Many travelers faced long lines and a lack of information which caused frustration.

"Tensions are high. A lot of people are getting mad. I've seen several yelling at the American agents," s Julie Burch, a business-meeting speaker who was stuck at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport waiting for a flight to Denver said. "Nobody can tell us anything."

The airline wasn't able to check anyone in, which put all service at a halt. Computers were out of service, leaving AA gate employees doing things manually.

American tried to keep customers updated through social media site, Twitter. They posted several messages.

The airline cannot make changes to flight while the system is down but they will provide free reservations changes and refunds for stranded passengers.