IT issue grounds planes as FAA temporarily halts Alaska Airlines operations

Alaska Airlines was subject to an all-aircraft ground stop on Wednesday. Photo / AP

US carrier Alaska Airlines was subject to a “ground stop” for all aircraft and subcarriers on Wednesday morning, with a worrying notice to all airmen. The FAA’s strict stop order was reportedly due to a software issue.

“All Alaska mainline and subcarrier flights ground stopped”, read the FAA Advisory for all airports, and excluded services by SkyWest.

All flights were halted for about an hour on Wednesday morning while Alaska implemented a fix.

The stop was thought to affect all flights for Alaska Airlines and subcarrier Horizon, USA Today reported.

The issue became apparent during a scheduled upgrade.

“This morning we experienced an issue while performing an upgrade to the system that calculates our weight and balance. Out of an abundance of caution, we requested a ground stop for all Alaska and Horizon flights,” a spokesperson for the carrier told USA Today.

The issue was amended and flights began being cleared for take-off about 8.30am local time.

“Residual delays are expected throughout the day. We apologise for the inconvenience and encourage guests to check the status of their flights”, they said.

While ongoing disruption and delays were expected, there were no cancellations because of the IT glitch, thanks to the speedy identification.

This balance-and-weight glitch is the latest of a series of technical issues to afflict the airline.

In January, Alaksa’s Boeing 737s were grounded after a Boeing qualiy-control issue in which a door detached midflight.

A plumbing issue resulted in flooding on a 737 Max service from Hawaii this month.