An investigation is underway both internally and externally into a technology failure at the U.S. mega-carrier United Airlines that cut off communication to dispatchers through normal means.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that the airline asked the FAA to pause all United departures nationwide. This outage affected aircraft both on the ground and in the air. Crews who couldn't contact dispatchers in the normal way were told to continue to their destination as planned. Hundreds of other flights were delayed.
The carrier said that after it experienced a systemwide technology issue a fix was activated and flight operations resumed within a short period of time and that it was working with 'impacted customers to help them reach their destinations as soon as possible.'