UPDATE: Computer Failure Disrupts American Airlines Reservation System

The American Airlines reservation system went down at airports across the country, preventing people from checking in for departing flights Thursday afternoon. The airline is reporting that the system is coming back online as of 1:30 p.m. Central time and flights will soon resume.

American Airlines requested a ground stop at O’Hare Airport as well as airports in Dallas-Fort Worth and Miami, the airline’s three largest hubs, according to the FAA, to deal with the problem.

As of 1:10 p.m. Central time, passengers are reporting that some flights were boarding. NBC Chicago is reporting that computers at O’Hare have come back online and 10 flights out of O’Hare were delayed. Passengers arriving in Chicago at 1:30 p.m. are reporting long delays on the tarmac as they wait for their planes to be assigned to a gate.

“We have resolved connectivity issues that led to a ground stop today at our Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth and Miami hubs. We apologize for the inconvenience and are working to get our customers on their way as soon as possible,” said Andrea Huguely, an American Airlines spokeswoman, in a statement to Patch.

Earlier in the day, at the onset of the problem, American Airlines responded to querying customers on Twitter, via @AmericanAir, with this reply: ”We’re working to resolve technical issues impacting several airports as quickly as possible. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

The failure arose before noon Central time as passengers began notifying the airline they could not log into the website or the mobile app to download boarding passes. The computer system at the airport was also affected, and flight delays were reported around the country.

Passengers aboard jets on the tarmac in Chicago, Dallas and Miami were forced to wait for up to an hour before pilots on some flights returned to the gate.

You may check American Airlines flights in real time at flightaware.com or flightradar24.com.

In July, Chicago-based United Airlines experienced a nationwide failure in its computer system, resulting in a nationwide grounding and a disruption to 3,500 flights. That outage lasted almost three hours. Thursday’s American Airlines failure does not appear to be as widespread.