Computer problems trigger flight delays at TIA

Tampa, Florida - For airline travelers, Thursday was a red-letter day and not in a good way. At TIA, those red letters on both the arrival and departure signs spelled "DELAYED."

According to the FAA, the computer system that processes flight plan information automatically experienced an outage about 5:30 a.m. Some five hours later those computers were up and running, but in the meantime, air traffic controllers had to enter information manually, which slowed things down a bit.

The computer problem triggered tardy flights across the country and at TIA dozens of flights either took off or landed late.

Press Release: FAA statement on the computer failures (PDF)
Flight Info: Tampa International Airport Flight Information 

"I'm stuck here. I've been stuck here," said Rebecca Graves of Spring Hill. She spent more than three extra hours in the airport waiting on a friend's flight from New York.

"I went and got coffee, went and got food and then people watching and that's getting boring too," said Graves, who a few minutes later finally got to greet her friend.

While airport officials advised travelers to check airline websites before coming to TIA, conflicting information about her flight to New Jersey left Mandi and 4-year-old Emerson Nedurian stuck on ground, but still up in the air.

"I keep getting different texts," said Mandi. "This one (an overhead sign) says three o'clock. My text on my phone says 2:19... so I don't know which one's right."

While hubs like Atlanta, Houston and Charlotte were the worst hit with delays, hundreds of travelers at TIA still spent time craning their necks and looking at the overhead signs.

And the lucky ones didn't see red.