WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration briefly ordered a nationwide ground stop on all Alaska Airlines flights on Wednesday morning.
Alaska Airlines said it requested a ground stop for all flights, including Horizon, due to an issue with the system that calculates weight and balance for the airline. The company said that issue occurred while it was trying to perform an upgrade to the system.
"Out of an abundance of caution, we requested a ground stop for all Alaska and Horizon flights, which was instituted at approximately 7:30am PT," the Seattle-based airline said in a statement. "The issue was mitigated and the ground stop for Alaska and Horizon flights expired at 8:30am PT."
"We have begun releasing flights. Residual delays are expected throughout the day. We apologize for the inconvenience and encourage guests to check the status of their flights on alaskaair.com or the Alaska App prior to heading to the airport," the statement continued.
The initial advisory did not detail the reason for the ground stop, but it did exclude SkyWest, a regional airline that services Alaska Airlines and others.
The grounding came as Senate committees held dual hearings Wednesday examining allegations of major safety failures at Boeing, which has been pushed into crisis mode since a door-plug panel blew off a 737 Max jetliner during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.