by Donald Wood
Last updated: 9:22 AM ET, Fri October 14, 2016
On Thursday night, United Airlines was hit with a computer glitch that temporarily delayed departures for thousands of passengers across the world.
According to Reuters.com, there were actually two glitches in the United Airlines computer system, with the company's luggage weighing systems first going down and then another unidentified issue that was fixed at around 3 a.m. ET Friday morning.
"Earlier tonight we experienced an issue with our weight reporting system, which caused system-wide flight delays," United Airlines said in a statement. "We have resolved the issue and are working to get customers to their destinations as soon as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience."
Reuters is reporting that United Airlines customers were stranded across the world on planes and inside terminals for several hours as the company worked to remedy the issue. The problem extended as far as Paris, where check-in lines grew for a flight to New York Friday morning.
United Airlines reported all of its systems were fully operational as of 3 a.m. ET, and only 44 flights were still delayed or canceled as of 8:30 a.m. ET, according to FlightAware.com.
Unfortunately, this is the third computer system glitch that United Airlines has faced in recent months. In June, the airline's computers briefly lost functionality and caused delays, and a similar incident took place in July when flights were disrupted due to a technical issue with reservations records.
The technical issues in the airline industry are much bigger than just the problems facing United, as top carriers in the world including Delta Air Lines and British Airways also faced major technical problems this year that caused thousands of passengers to be delayed.
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