United Grounds Flights After Nationwide IT Outage

United Airlines temporarily grounded all U.S. flights on Wednesday evening after a major outage in its Unimatic system, which stores essential flight data including weight-and-balance information required for takeoff. The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop, severely disrupting operations at major hubs such as Chicago, Denver, Newark, Houston, and San Francisco. Thousands of passengers were stranded for hours, with some stuck on planes and others missing connecting flights, but flights already in the air continued as planned. United resolved the technical issue after several hours, though residual delays persisted as normal operations resumed. The airline apologized, offered compensation such as hotel accommodations, and emphasized its commitment to safety. This incident comes amid similar recent IT disruptions at other major U.S. airlines, raising concerns about the reliability of airline technology systems.