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Southwest Airlines flying again after major computer glitch grounds flights

Systemwide computer glitch grounds more than 60 Southwest flights on Friday/Saturday

By Bob Brown, Network World
June 22, 2013 09:00 AM ET

Network World - Southwest Airlines says its computer systems are back in working order after a major glitch Friday night forced the company to ground more than 60 flights between Friday night and Saturday morning.

The company on Saturday issued the following statement:

On Friday, June 21, Southwest Airlines experienced a systemwide computer outage impacting a number of flights and Customers. Southwest systems are working at full capacity but flights are expected to be impacted on Saturday, June 22. The People of Southwest are working hard to accommodate those impacted and encourage our Customers to check their flight status prior to arriving to the airport.

[Worst security snafus of 2012]

According to Associated press, 50 flights were cancelled for Friday night and another 14 on Saturday morning, with other flights expected to be impacted even if they do eventually happen. About 250 flights were temporarily grounded Friday, according to NPR, as the computer system glitch affected operations such as check-ins, ticketing and weighing planes.

Southwest early Saturday morning issued a Tweet updating customers that “A system outage has caused us to hold departing flights. Flights in the air are not affected by this. All hands on deck to resolve.”

It was American Airlines’ turn to cancel flights due to a computer glitch back in April.

Those stuck in the middle of the Southwest mess also reached out on social media:

On a more lighthearted note, Southwest also came up on Twitter via comedian Jimmy Fallon, though not really having anything to do with the computer glitch:

Read more about security in Network World's Security section.

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