Air traffic disrupted in East

‘Technical issues’ at Virginia control center blamed

Washington — Air traffic was snarled on Saturday as many flights to and from airports throughout a large swath of the Northeast stretching from New York to the Carolinas were delayed or canceled.

The Federal Aviation Administration blamed the problem on “technical issues” at an air traffic control center in Leesburg, Va. Late Saturday afternoon, the agency said the problem had been resolved and officials were working to lift any remaining orders to hold planes on the ground.

Flights bound for airports in the Washington area, including Washington’s Reagan National Airport, Dulles International and Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, were some of the most affected. Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in North Carolina also reported major problems.

By midafternoon, 50% of inbound flights and 42% of outbound flights had been canceled at Reagan National, and delays were averaging about three hours, according to FlightRadar24, a flight monitoring website.

In Baltimore, 58% of inbound flights and 36% of outbound flights had been canceled, and delays were averaging more than an hour.

Flights departing from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports in New York that normally fly over the Washington region as they head south were affected, although the FAA had said it was trying to route the flights around the affected area.

FAA officials had no immediate estimate of how many flights were affected, but FlightRadar24 spokesman Ian Petchenik said it was certainly in the hundreds.

The agency said in a statement that the snarl was the result of an “automation problem” at the Leesburg center. The center handles high-altitude air traffic for the affected region. The problem wasn’t believed to be caused by an accident or hacking.

Information posted online by the FAA indicated that there was a problem with the En Route Automation Modernization computer system, also known as ERAM, at the Leesburg center.

The FAA finished installing the troubled computer system in the last of 20 highaltitude traffic control centers earlier this year. The completion was years behind schedule.

Miller Roberts, 40, of Dallas was trying to fly from Baltimore to Kansas City to set up a robotics display at the Missouri State Fair but was caught in a flight delay for more than four hours.

Roberts said he boarded a Southwest Airlines flight that was supposed to take off at 10 a.m., but he was still sitting on the plane, waiting, after 2 p.m.

But he said his fellow passengers were taking the delay in stride. “I think everyone realizes this is out of our control,” he said.