Thousands of United Airlines flights across the U.S. were grounded for two hours on Wednesday after what the airline said was a "network connectivity issue."
The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all of United's flights following a system-wide computer glitch, which was resolved, the agency said. The grounding order began at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) and ended at 9:47 a.m. (1347 GMT), according to Reuters.
About 260 flights were delayed (12 percent of all United flights) and seven were cancelled.
The airline said it is working to restore flight operations but added that residual delays were expected throughout the day for all 4,395 daily departures, The Guardian reported.
Passengers struggled to cope with the travel headaches and used social media to vent their frustrations:
United flights are all grounded and I'm stuck in a small airport with no good food #thanksUnited
— Annie Neal (@AnnieNeal13) July 8, 2015
Glad I'm not flying #United tomorrow. New slogan idea: "It's as though you never left the ground". #airlines — Scott Robinson (@ScottRobinson83) July 8, 2015
@united The technology breakdown this morning set my vacation off on a horrible note! #vacationfoul #UnitedAirlines — rjmiller22 (@rjmiller22) July 8, 2015
United said it would offer waivers on its website for affected passengers to rebook their flight without charge.
The waiver offer suggests United, which is owned by parent United Continental Holdings, is hoping some passengers would opt not to fly on Wednesday, to ease pressure on the airline's schedule that has been thrown out of whack by the late departures, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Two United pilots said the ground stop was prompted because United's computer system couldn't provide verified passenger lists that are required before the FAA could authorize takeoffs.
United flights is no stranger to technical problems as of late. Last month, 176 passengers on a flight from Chicago to London were forced to sleep in military barracks after their flight was diverted to Goose Bay, Canada due to mechanical reasons. A spokesperson said at the time that the diversion was due to a maintenance issue, described as an unexplained vibration in the plane.
