American airline Delta will resume flights

A MAJOR airline has lifted its worldwide grounding of flights after a computer failure left thousands of passengers stranded.

Delta Airlines has been forced to ground all its planes worldwide over an unspecified systems outage. Picture: Joe Raedle / Getty Images / AFP

DELTA Airlines said on Monday a worldwide grounding of its flights has been lifted and its planes will resume taking off on a limited basis.

The airline said cancellations and delays will continue because of the more than three hour halt caused by a computer breakdown. It blamed the problem on a power outage at its hub in Atlanta.

WGCL-TV in Atlanta, where Delta Air is based, said the problem was first uncovered when a flight was to take off from San Francisco.

Flight status systems, airport screens incorrectly showing flights on time. Widespread cancels occurring, expected. Teams working to resolve

— Delta News Hub (@DeltaNewsHub) August 8, 2016

Due to a computer outage, flights awaiting departure are currently delayed. Flights enroute are operating normally.

— Delta News Hub (@DeltaNewsHub) August 8, 2016

Note to UK travellers flying #VirginAtlantic today — @VirginAtlantic share check in area with #Delta at Heathrow. Arrive early. It's chaos.

— Alex Macheras (@AlexInAir) August 8, 2016

Airline data company Flightaware said there were at least 858 cancellations and 7,359 delays across the global airline industry on Monday. It’s unclear how many are related to Delta’s problems and whether Delta’s groundings are reflected in the numbers.

Crowding LGA terminal as all Delta flights grounded for major hack per our pilot. Gate agents handwriting manifests pic.twitter.com/NKlrNSDmmA

— Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) August 8, 2016

@Delta all flight grounded? Get it together.

— Harvey Mason, Jr. (@HarveyMasonjr) August 8, 2016

The hashtag #deltafail has taken off with disgruntled passengers expressing their dismay.

Among the thousands delayed by the situation is Stephen Smith, 32, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He has been stuck on the ground for about three hours at Tokyo’s Narita Airport on a flight that was supposed to go to Shanghai.

Smith took solace in the fact the air conditioning on the plane was working and said it seemed everyone on board was fine.

“Waiting game at this point,” he tweeted to The Associated Press.

Carly Hayes, of New York, said on Instagram, she was due to travel from Fiumicino Airport in Rome to New York’s JFK: “The airline provided passengers with little information.”

Jackie Watanabe, who was due to travel from Las Vegas to Minneapolis, tweeted that the airline was handing out blankets to passengers who wanted to get some sleep on the floor of the terminal there.

“I’m not ready to go into camping mode yet, but other passengers are,” she said.

Red Sea of @delta blankets #DeltaMeltdown2016 pic.twitter.com/g9raxYQdt2

— Jackie Watanabe (@sushiigirl) August 8, 2016

Computer outages have caused major headaches for airlines and travellers before. Southwest Airlines was forced to cancel more than 2,000 flights across the U.S. last month after technology problems prevented many travellers from checking in or boarding flights.

Hey @Delta your website and app are not working! How do we check status of flight #deltafail AGAIN

— mark curley (@markcurley) August 8, 2016