Oklahoma City airport cancels, delays dozens of flights after FAA system outage

Dozens of flights in and out of Oklahoma City were delayed or canceled Wednesday after a computer system that offers safety and other information to pilots went down, grounding hundreds of planes across the U.S.

At least 51 flights were delayed and 8 flights were canceled in and out of Will Rogers World Airport on Wednesday, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.

Staff in the Oklahoma City airport terminal could be heard over the intercom about 9 a.m., calling names of passengers whose flights were set to leave at different times and imploring them to make it to the boarding gate before takeoff.

Nura Mya, 34, had traveled to the Oklahoma City area to help his brother get settled for work and was heading back to Chicago via American Airlines after staying in a motel overnight.

"I was trying to leave on a flight earlier to get back to Chicago, but now they changed me to Dallas," Mya said. "I was supposed to leave at 11:30 a.m., but now I won't leave until 12:38 (p.m.)."

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Steven Bee, who said he doesn't fly much, was supposed to take a 10:30 a.m. flight with American Airlines to Cleveland. It was delayed to 1 p.m.

While admitting it was an inconvenience, Bee said he was more understanding after being told the reason why.

"One of the employees made it sound like it was a system malfunction, like a crash," Bee said. "I could see how that would be a strain."

Stacey Hamm, spokeswoman for Will Rogers World Airport, said the Federal Aviation Administration grounded flights early Wednesday because of a "glitch" in the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system.

"NOTAM basically tells the airlines once they're in the air how they're doing and what to look out for," Hamm said. "We didn't want flights to go up in the air until we had the maintenance system back up and running."

The FAA actually noticed a problem in the system late Tuesday, Hamm said, and in order to begin resolving the issue, operators and technicians temporarily "had to take the whole database down," she said.

"The FAA still had flights in the air, those international flights that were already on their way to their destinations, but they didn't want any more flights in the air until it was all rectified."

By 8:30 a.m., the order to ground the flights had been lifted. About 9 a.m., major airlines were beginning to return to the air. Hamm said she was confident the FAA "pretty much has the issue solved."

The Southwest and United airline companies did have some cancellations and delays at the Oklahoma City airport in the late morning and early afternoon. Hamm was unable to confirm if those changes were directly connected to the outage, but she did expect flight schedules at the OKC airport "to start to level out" by late morning Wednesday.

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Millions of passengers elsewhere across the United States, however, were not quite as fortunate. By late afternoon Wednesday, more than 1,300 flights had been canceled and more than 9,000 flights had been delayed throughout the country, according to FlightAware.

"It's nationwide," Mya said. "When you realize it's not just you or your one flight but it's everybody, I think it helps to give you perspective."

Van Vu, a 35-year-old technician, doesn't fly frequently, either. Her travel plans Wednesday included what she said was only the third flight she'd ever taken, and it was supposed to be with Southwest Airlines so that she could be with her family in Ohio.

But Vu's flight was canceled, she said, and she'd been moved to a different flight later in the day.

"It's not the worst thing that could happen, but I am going to be sitting here for two more hours," Vu said.

But Dale Ferguson said he was "pretty bothered" after his 11 a.m. flight to Houston was canceled and he found himself awaiting another flight later that afternoon.

"It makes me wonder what's happened with the FAA," Ferguson said. "They're supposed to be on top of everything, but it just seems like stuff like this is happening more and more."

The White House said there was no evidence that a cyberattack triggered the outage, and President Joe Biden said he directed the Department of Transportation to investigate the cause of the NOTAM system breakdown.

Wednesday's chaos came two weeks after Southwest Airlines also canceled dozens of flights in and out of Will Rogers World Airport in the days immediately following Christmas.

"Here, at Will Rogers World Airport, you should be leaving on time," Hamm said. "However, if you're connecting through a major hub, you may see delays. But it's always good to make sure during situations like this that you want to check and see if there's changes in your flight ahead of time. And, of course, it's always good to make sure you're here at the airport at least two hours before your scheduled flight so that you can be prepared."

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Will Rogers airport grounds flights Wednesday after FAA system outage