'Aggravated. Ridiculous': BWI passengers frustrated by flight delays due to FAA system malfunction
BALTIMORE -- If a story could be told in colors, then this would be that story. There were red departures, red arrivals, and even red faces of upset travelers at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport on Wednesday.
This was the outcome after thousands of flights, nationwide, were disrupted because of a government system outage at the Federal Aviation Administration.
FlightAware listed more than 40 cancellations BWI Airport on Wednesday, and the delays piled up all day long.
At 3 p.m., 280 flights were delayed at BWI Airport.
"So much red. So much yellow. Not enough green," traveler Sadie Roberts said.
The hundreds of delays left passengers once again frustrated.
This comes just weeks after thousands of flights were canceled, and bags were in limbo, because of a winter storm.
"Everything's red, either delayed or canceled," traveler Kimberly Corzine said. "It's stressful."
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"Aggravated. Ridiculous," traveler Herbert Roberts said.
"Too much red for this to be a normal functioning airport," Roberts added.
Like the rest of the country, BWI Airport experienced an FAA ground stop Wednesday morning.
There were departures anywhere across the United States.
The ground stop was eventually lifted, but flights continued to be delayed.
"FAA computer something and I thought, 'Here, we go,'" Corzine said.
The FAA said the problem was an outage to its "notice to air missions system" or "notams." it provides safety information to pilots.
"I just feel really bad for people," Roberts said. "I keep thinking their animals are waiting for them at home. Their families are eager to see them."
Airlines got the green light to resume departures just before 9 a.m.
"They told me it was at 8:30, went to 11:15, now it's until 2:15," Roberts said.
By the time the ground stop was lifted, most flights, including Roberts' trip back home to Texas had been delayed.
"I feel pretty bad for the people who are stuck," Roberts said. "I feel like this is going to cause a lot of mayhem and panic."
Transportation officials are investigating the cause of the outage.
Right now, the White House said there is no evidence of a cyberattack.
BWI has an average delay of more than an hour.
