![]() The Associated Press contributed to this report. Some compared it to the nationwide shutdown of airspace after the terror attacks of September 2001. Back in December, Southwest Airlines suffered a massive breakdown that led to the cancelation of nearly 17,000 flights in 10 days before resuming a normal schedule. Longtime aviation insiders could not recall an outage of such magnitude caused by a technology breakdown. The system used to be telephone-based, with pilots calling dedicated flight service stations for the information but has since moved online. ![]() The outage revealed how dependent the world’s largest economy is on air travel, and how dependent air travel is on an antiquated computer system called the Notice to Air Missions System, or NOTAM.īefore commencing a flight, pilots are required to consult NOTAMs, which list potential adverse impacts on flights, from runway construction to the potential for icing. This comes after the airline experienced a computer outage in a government system in January that delayed or canceled thousands of flights across the U.S. We appreciate the patience of our Customers and Employees during this morning’s brief disruption. We ask that travelers use to check flight status or visit a Southwest Airlines Customer Service Agent at the airport for assistance with travel needs. Southwest Teams worked quickly to minimize flight disruptions. Early this morning, a vendor-supplied firewall went down and connection to some operational data was unexpectedly lost. Southwest has resumed operations after temporarily pausing flight activity this morning to work through data connection issues resulting from a firewall failure. News 6 reached out to Southwest Airlines, and the airline sent the following statement: ![]() I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but we'll be here for you if you need any assistance. We have had to implement a ground stop as a result of intermittent issues that were experienced, and we should hopefully be resuming our operation as soon as possible.
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