Southwest Airlines Experiencing Tech Outage

Southwest Airlines is experiencing a tech outage, affecting multiple technology systems and grounding some planes.

"We have a team of experts working diligently to resolve the technical issues and their efforts have systems gradually coming back online," the company said. The airline said it expects to continue to move toward normal operations but that it will take time. "We are now managing flight delays across our system, with a temporary ground stop in place for those flights that have not left the gate," Southwest said.

As the outage took down the company's website, Southwest had used Twitter to communicate the outage. "We have all hands on deck investigating," and are "working diligently toward a fix," the company said in a series of tweets. The problems started earlier Wednesday afternoon.

David Sonders, a passenger from Chicago stuck on a delayed flight, said his plane's "pilot said that things are 'slowly getting better.'"

Vinz Karl, flying to St. Louis from Kansas City, Mo., said his flight recently received permission to take off. "Can't blame them for a tech issue," he said.

"We're seeing some systems coming back slowly," Southwest said in a recent tweet.

Write to Lisa Beilfuss at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 20, 2016 17:35 ET (21:35 GMT)

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