Some U.S. airports back to normal after computer glitch

By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Air traffic at some major U.S. airports was returning to normal on Tuesday after many planes were delayed due to a glitch in the computer system for filing flight plans, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The Department of Homeland Security said there was no link to terrorism and the FAA said the computer glitch did not affect its ability to safely track planes in the air.

An FAA official told reporters during a conference call that the agency hoped to have the problem resolved by around 6 p.m. (2200 GMT).

Flights from a wide swath of the United States, from Dallas and Chicago to the East Coast, had been delayed, according to the FAA.

"It looks like we're slowly starting to dig out of this," said Hank Krakowski, chief operations officer for the FAA's air traffic division. FAA officials said they did not know how many flights had been delayed by the computer breakdown.

Krakowski said operations in New York were normal and delays in Boston were clearing up. He added that Baltimore's airport was improving but still experiencing delays and Washington, D.C., airports were operating normally.

FAA officials said the most significant delays appeared to be continuing in Atlanta, which also was experiencing severe thunderstorms in the region that further hampered travel.

Flights out of Chicago's O'Hare airport were experiencing delays of more than one hour, Krakowski said.