The Northwood Little League baseball team and coaches were delayed leaving Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport this morning because technical problems at a Federal Aviation Administration center in Virginia, according to authorities.
Northwood was to leave at 6:30 a.m. and arrive in Pennsylvania at their hotel by 4:30 p.m. The team is now scheduled to arrive at 9:30 p.m.
Jeff Tompkins and John Eastlake, who will be greeting the team when it arrives at Williamsport, Pa., said the players will still get to visit the stadium tonight. “That’s one of the first things players want to see when they get here,” Tompkins said. “They keep the field lit for the teams coming in and it’s a beautiful sight at night.”
Eastlake said the teams will most likely get settled in their rooms, eat and see the stadium in its only activities later tonight.
The FAA issued a statement: “The FAA is diagnosing an automation problem at an air traffic center in Leesburg, Va. Some flights into and out of the New York and Washington, D.C. metro area airports area may be delayed. We are directing high altitude traffic around the affected airspace."
The Associated Press reported that part of the trouble is due to “a computer system known as ERAM that air traffic controllers used at 20 centers around the country that handle high-altitude air traffic. Installation of the system was completed earlier this year at the last of the centers, years behind schedule."
More than 130 flights had been grounded and one media agency reported airlines telling passengers to expect delays throughout the day and to plan accordingly.
“There are widespread impacts on airline flight operations throughout the regions,” said Jonathan Dean, a spokesman for Baltimore's airport tells the AP.
He said takeoffs and landings at airports in the region are “extremely limited.”