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The makings of a “nightmare before Christmas” came into play as one airline’s “technical issue” brought flights to a halt nationwide.

“Hopefully, it won’t be long.”

On one of the busiest travel days of the year, passengers flying with American Airlines were afforded dread while left in suspense as to whether or not they were going to make it to their holiday destinations. Without a detailed explanation or estimate on the length of the outage, flights were temporarily grounded Tuesday morning across the country.

“We’re currently experiencing a technical issue with all American Airlines flights. Your safety is our utmost priority, once this is rectified, we’ll have you safely on your way to your destination,” the airline said in a reply to one customer on social media.

In another message, American Airlines stated, “An estimated timeframe has not been provided, but they’re trying to fix it in the shortest possible time.”

CNN correspondent Pete Muntean shared an update as the story developed indicating that at around 8 a.m. ET flights had begun boarding once more as the ground stop had been canceled.

While full details weren’t forthcoming from the airline on the specifics of its “technical issue,” at least one traveler said, “Captain says @AmericanAir software outage preventing weight & balance calculations ‘company-wide’ with no estimate on resolution. Flights unable to depart as a result. Not a good start to Christmas Eve travel!”

That was more information than what was provided in the terminal at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport where CBS Miami reporter Anna McAllister shared a video of an employee announcing, “Our system is down. We cannot… board any customers. Bear with us, they are working on it. Hopefully, it won’t be long.”

Equally limited was information offered by the Federal Aviation Administration which said in a statement while over 2,000 issues had been denoted by DownDetector, “American Airlines is reporting a technical issue and has requested a nationwide ground stop. Please contact American Airlines for more information.”

Tuesday’s travel trip up came two years after a Southwest Airlines “debacle” stranded thousands of customers the day after Christmas when nearly 3,000 flights, or roughly 70% of its schedule, were canceled amid more than a week of issues that resulted in nearly 17,000 flights being canceled overall due to a winter storm.

Nearly one year later, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg hit the airline with a $140 million civil penalty for how the storm had been weathered.

While the Christmas Eve crisis appeared to have been put to a stop, the jokes at the expense of American Airlines continued to pour in on social media as users referenced classic examples of arduous trips home and spoof troubleshooters with suggestions that the airline might consider turning their system off and back on again.

Kevin Haggerty
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