[Avionics Today 07-08-2015] United Airlines flight operations resumed Wednesday following a worldwide grounding of in-service aircraft for more than an hour due to an internal computer network problem. According to a statement released to Avionics Magazine by a spokesperson for United, a router issue caused the problem, which impacted 4,900 flights.
A United Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner at Denver International Airport. Photo: United Airlines.
“An issue with a router degraded network connectivity for various applications, causing this morning’s operational disruption. We fixed the router issue, which is enabling us to restore normal functions,” the spokesperson said.
United’s computer network problem occurred on the same day that the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) halted trading for three hours due to an “internal technical issue,” according to the NYSE’s Twitter account. Trading resumed, later in the day, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson confirmed that the two problems were not related or the result of “nefarious” activity.
“I have spoken to the CEO of United, Jeff Smisek, myself. It appears from what we know at this stage that the malfunctions at United and the stock exchange were not the result of any nefarious actor,” Johnson said during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.