American Airlines Flights Grounded: Glitches In Pilots’ iPads Forced Planes To Circle Back For A WiFi Connection

Sleek iPads, which once lightened the load pilots had to lug around, caused havoc on the tarmac when glitches “froze” multiple flights of American Airlines.

“Technical issues,” which were later traced to software on the iPads that pilots carry has grounded several American Airlines planes in the United States. The airlines acknowledged the problems on late Tuesday night in a statement.

“We apologize for the inconvenience to our customers. Some flights are experiencing an issue with a software application on pilot iPads. We are working to have them on the way to their destination as soon as possible.”

Apparently, an error with the digital map used by pilots in the cockpit messed with the pre-flight checks, forcing pilots to seek precautionary measures, delaying several flights in the process. Fortunately, though the delays are bound to cost the airlines, the glitches turned out to be relatively trivial, mandating a secure WiFi connection to rectify, added the airlines.

“In some cases, the flight has had to return to the gate to access a WiFi connection to fix the issue.”

Without divulging many details, airline spokeswoman Andrea Huguely said “more than a couple dozen flights” were affected.

@bjacaruso Some flights are experiencing an issue with a software application on pilot iPads. We'll have info about your departure soon.

— americanair (@AmericanAir) April 29, 2015

Interestingly, though the iPad is at the center of the brouhaha, the airline was quick to absolve Apple Inc., the maker of the tablet, of any wrongdoing. American Airlines has laid the blame on a faulty third-party app.

In 2013, American Airlines was considered a pioneer company when it boldly ditched the traditional paper-based navigational instructions that each pilot had to carry for an iPad. Loaded with terminal charts and other reference materials, the “flight bag” weighed a hefty 35 lbs. Though American Airlines became the first airline to have its pilots rely entirely on iPads for flight plans and navigation, the glitch does indicate possibility of digital errors creeping in.

Also referred to as the “Kit Bag,” merely replacing 8,000 of these heavy backpacks with lightweight iPads allowed American Airlines to save 400,000 gallons of fuel each year. 8,000 iPads effortlessly replaced 24 million pages of documents, which had to be read by the pilots before each flight. The reduction in the volume of paper was also hailed as an eco-friendly move from an industry that is routinely blamed for being one of the leading polluters of the planet.

American Airlines hasn’t confirmed if it is considering a backup platform to ensure its flights aren’t grounded by such glitches in the future.

[Image Credit | AINonline/Daily Tech]