Computer glitch grounds United flights

United Airlines jets are parked on the tarmac at Newark Liberty International Airport, Tuesday, July 22, 2014, in Newark, N.J. In a sign of increased caution about flying near combat zones, U.S. and European airlines halted flights to Israel Tuesday after a rocket landed near Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport. Delta Air Lines and United Airlines suspended service between the U.S. and Israel indefinitely. The actions come days after a Malaysia Airlines jet was shot down over eastern Ukraine with 298 people on board. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

A computer glitch has grounded United Airlines flights for the second time in six weeks, backing up thousands of passengers in the busy morning travel rush.

The Wednesday morning glitch came shortly before trading was halted on the New York Stock Exchange as a result of technical problems.

While the timing of the two incidents raised concerns that a cyberattack was in progress, it appeared to be a coincidence.

There are “no signs of malicious activity at this time,” a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security told AFP, adding: “We’re still investigating.”

United flights around the country were prevented from taking off for more than an hour because “an issue with a router degraded network connectivity for various applications,” the airline said.

“We fixed the router issue, which is enabling us to restore normal functions,” United said in a statement.

About 900 flights had been affected by midday and more were expected to be delayed as United worked through the logistics, said Mark Duell, vice president of operations at FlightAware.com, which tracks flights and delays.

It will take hours, if not days, for the cascading delays to work their way through the system.

Because United is so efficient when it comes to turning their planes around, any significant delay can cause major disruptions.

Flights get backed up on the tarmac because delayed planes are still at the gate, connections get missed and crew members have to be replaced.

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