Hum Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 CHICAGO (AP) ? A system-wide computer failure forced Southwest Airlines to ground its entire fleet of airplanes preparing for departures late Friday, and at least 57 flights had to be canceled even after service was fully restored hours later, a company spokeswoman said.Michelle Agnew told The Associated Press that 43 of the cancellations were flights scheduled for late Friday night departures in the western half of the country. The other 14 were Saturday morning flights scattered across the U.S. because crews were not able to get to airports in time to make the scheduled takeoffs.An estimated 250 flights ? most of them on the West Coast ? were grounded at least temporarily Friday night. The glitch impaired the airline's ability to do such things as conduct check-ins, print boarding passes and monitor the weight of each aircraft.Some flights were on the taxiway and diverted back to the terminal after the problem was detected around 8 p.m. PDT Friday, Southwest spokesman Brad Hawkins said. Flights already in the air were unaffected.Shortly after 11 p.m. PDT, Southwest posted on its Twitter page that "systems are operating and we will begin work to get customers where they need to be. Thanks for your patience tonight."Agnew said the computer system was "running at full capacity" by early Saturday. Before that, though, officials used a backup system that was much more sluggish."Backup systems are in place, not the main system, so it's slower," Hawkins said after service resumed. "But we are able to start launching these flights."He said cancellations were inevitable because the airline doesn't do redeye flights and by the time the problem was fixed, it was near "the end of our operational day."The late hour of the disruption meant the computer problem affected far more flights on the West Coast, but Hawkins said at least a few on the East Coast were grounded as well. Southwest, based in Dallas, conducts, on average, 3,400 flights a day.more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnelsoninjax Posted June 23, 2013 Share Posted June 23, 2013 Agnew said the computer system was "running at full capacity" by early Saturday. Before that, though, officials used a backup system that was much more sluggish. "Backup systems are in place, not the main system, so it's slower," Hawkins said after service resumed. "But we are able to start launching these flights." He said cancellations were inevitable because the airline doesn't do redeye flights and by the time the problem was fixed, it was near "the end of our operational day." Well lets see here, why would they have backups in place if the main systems are not in the backup? It stands to reason that they would want redundancies in place so that the transition is flawless... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atomic Wanderer Chicken Posted June 23, 2013 Share Posted June 23, 2013 I think its time for the airlines to upgrade their Windows 98 computers :woot: Hum 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnelsoninjax Posted June 23, 2013 Share Posted June 23, 2013 I think its time for the airlines to upgrade their Windows 98 computers :woot: Just upgrade to Windows blue! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hum Posted June 23, 2013 Author Share Posted June 23, 2013 Amazing to think that airlines could not operate without computers. :huh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Growled Member Posted June 23, 2013 Member Share Posted June 23, 2013 Just upgrade to Windows blue! :D Better yet, move to Linux. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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