A computer system that triggered widespread flight delays this morning is now back up and running.   But it still may be a while before airports across the country get back on track.

In Springfield, flights are arriving and taking off smoothly but a spokesperson says it may be after midday when our local airport starts seeing the impact.

Terrell Brown is at New York's LaGuardia Airport to explain what went wrong:

 A computer glitch that turned some airport runways into parking lots has been fixed. Across the country airlines are still recovering from widespread delays and cancelations.

Delta and Airtran have been particularly hard hit. Both carriers have hubs at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the world's busiest airport.

Around 5:15 this morning  the FAA began experiencing problems with its computer system that processes flight plan information.

Controllers had to start manually entering information for each take-off and landing. That took much longer than the automated system.. and  slowed everything down.

The back-up began in the East Coast. Delays at New York's LaGuardia Airport have been minor so far. But passengers everywhere are being urged to check the status of their flight before heading to the airport.

The FAA is investigating what caused the computer outage. There's been no talk about cyber-terrorism at this point.
Airlines stress that there was never any danger in the air. Radar, weather equipment and radio communications were not affected.

This is the second time in 15 months that a computer problem with the FAA flight plan system has caused delays.



(Terrell Brown, CBS News)