United Airlines flights grounded nationwide for 30 minutes due to ‘connectivity issue’

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All United Airlines flights were grounded nationally this morning due to a « connectivity issue » before the ground stop was lifted 30 minutes later.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued the stop at the company’s request across the U.S. and Canada between 1 a.m. ET and 2:30 a.m. ET — but it was then canceled at 1:30 a.m.

The reason given by the Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC) was simply « COMPANY REQUEST / TECHNOLOGY. »

The airline told NBC News in an emailed comment: « United experienced a brief connectivity issue just before midnight Central time on Tuesday, but has since resumed normal operations. »

FlightAware’s « Misery Map » showing delays across the country showed 42 delays and 4 cancelations between 12 a.m. ET and 4 a.m. with LAX the worst effected.

The airline had a similar outage in August, when airports in Chicago, San Francisco, Houston and Newark, New Jersey were hit by delays due to an unspecified problem.