SEATTLE (KOMO) — Alaska Airlines has lifted the ground stop that halted all flights for nearly three hours late Sunday night due to an IT outage, but fallout from the incident continues Monday.
The grounding included the entire fleet: 238 Alaska and Horizon jets.
The airline reported the issue began around 8 p.m. and requested a temporary, system-wide ground stop until the issue was resolved. Shortly after 11 p.m. the company stated that the ground stop had been lifted and all operations had resumed.
Alaska said that a critical piece of multi-redundant hardware at their data centers, manufactured by a third-party, experienced an unexpected failure. It was also not a cybersecurity event.
When this happened, it impacted several key systems that enable Alaska to run various operations, which necessitated the ground stop to keep aircraft in position.
Alaska Airlines stated the safety of its flights was never compromised.
Since Sunday evening, the airline said nearly 200 flights were cancelled, affecting the travel plans of 13,500 guests.
Video from a passenger showed people stranded on the tarmac inside an Alaska Airlines plane for hours at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA).
KOMO News’s Jeremy Harris was on the scene at SEA Sunday night, where the situation wasn’t too good. Many flights were cancelled, and long lines of people had queued up to try to re-book.
Frustrated flyers said they just wanted to go home, and some travelers said they are stuck at SEA because all the hotels in the area are booked.
Alaska Airlines said that while its systems are up and running, residual delays and disruptions should be expected throughout the day, and passengers should check their flight status.
Travelers can check their flight status HERE.
Alaska Airlines is the fifth-largest airline in the U.S. It flies to more than 120 destinations in five countries and has more than 44 million customers each year.
On the morning of July 21, Alaska Airlines released the following statement on its website:
As of 11 a.m. on Monday, we continue to get our operations back on track at Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air following a significant IT outage that resulted in a system-wide ground stop of flights. The ground stop began around 8 p.m. on Sunday and was lifted at 11 p.m. Pacific.
A critical piece of multi-redundant hardware at our data centers, manufactured by a third-party, experienced an unexpected failure. When that happened, it impacted several of our key systems that enable us to run various operations, necessitating the implementation of a ground stop to keep aircraft in position. The safety of our flights was never compromised.
Since Sunday evening, we’ve had a total of nearly 200 flight cancellations. We’ve experienced 104 cancellations today, which have affected the travel plans of 13,500 guests. Additional flight disruptions are possible. There are also flight delays as we reposition our aircraft and crews.
The IT outage is not related to any other current events, and it’s not a cybersecurity event.
We are currently working with our vendor to replace the hardware equipment at the data center.
We appreciate the patience of our guests whose travel plans have been disrupted. We’re working to get them to their destinations as quickly as we can. If you’re traveling today, please check your flight status before leaving for the airport. Also, a flexible travel policy is in place to support our guests.
