On Wednesday evening, a United Airlines system failure grounded planes and left thousands of customers stranded, causing extensive disruption throughout US airports. Flight operations were halted by the problem, which peaked at approximately 8 p.m. EDT. DownDetector, a prominent outage tracking tool, reported a sharp increase in complaints during this time.
Passengers reported delays from multiple major hubs, including Houston, New Orleans, Detroit, Denver, and Washington Dulles. As of now, the airline has not issued an official explanation for the outage or shared an estimated time of resolution.
Chaos on the Tarmac
Social media quickly flooded with passenger complaints. Travelers described being trapped inside planes for hours with no updates. One flier stuck in New Orleans wrote, “0 planes moving. No weight & balance data. Just vibes.” They also noted similar reports coming from Houston, Dallas, Detroit, and Denver.
Another passenger posted, “System-wide outage, all United Airlines planes grounded. Sitting on the plane…they have given us the option to get off with no ETA.”
At Houston airport, one user said, “My plane was supposed to take off 5 hours ago, and no United Airlines planes are leaving the tarmac. This is crazy.”
A fourth flyer at Dulles reported, “A system outage on United systems has a bunch of United planes waiting on the tarmac. First experience with United Airlines is a bust.”
United Airlines Breaks Silence
Under growing pressure, United Airlines responded directly to users online. In a tweet, they said, “We’re aware of the system error at this time and are working on a fix to have you on your way as soon as possible. We understand that this disruption has caused frustrations during your travel and appreciate your continued patience.”
However, the airline has not publicly confirmed the cause of the outage or when flights will resume normal operations.
Still No Resolution
Since there has been no official announcement regarding the underlying cause or the estimated time of recovery, many passengers are still in limbo, which has only increased passenger worry and the outage’s magnitude emphasizes how susceptible aviation systems are and how a single failure can have a domino effect.
