American Airlines Briefly Halts All Flights on Busy Day

Talk about miserable timing: All American Airlines flights had to be temporarily grounded Tuesday morning, one of the busiest travel days of the year. Flights have resumed, however. The airline experienced some kind of systemwide technical glitch, and the FAA ordered all American Airlines flights grounded as a result shortly before 8am ET, per the Wall Street Journal. The groundstop was lifted before 8:30am.

A post on the Federal Aviation Administration's website had acknowledged the airline's request for a "nationwide groundstop" for all American Airlines planes and their subsidiary airlines, per the AP. The nature of the glitch was not immediately specified. The groundings couldn't have come at a worse time for the millions of travelers expected to fly over the next 10 days. The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen 40 million passengers over the holidays and through January 2. (This story was updated to reflect the resumption of flights.)

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