Hour-long equipment outage at LAX causes 145 delays, 7 cancellations

An hour-long ground stop at Los Angeles Inteational Airport Thursday caused 145 flight delays and seven cancellations, just as travelers began converging on the airport ahead of the Memorial Day holiday.

The ground stop began at about 8 a.m. and was caused by an “equipment outage,” airport officials said.

“At 9:00 a.m. today, the FAA Air Traffic Control Tower at LAX lifted its one-hour ground stop for all flights into and out of the airport,” LAX officials said in a statement.

Both LAX and the Federal Aviation Administration used social media to wa travelers about the problem.

•RELATED STORY: Why LAX expects record passengers — but not long TSA lines — this Memorial Day weekend

“Traffic Alert: Computer software issue affecting some flights into @flyLAXairport, Passengers check w/airline for specific flight status,” The FAA tweeted at 8:59am.

A total of 62 arriving flights were delayed and three others were canceled, the airport said. An additional 83 departing flights were delayed and four departures were canceled.

LAX is expected to be the busiest airport in the country this holiday weekend, LAX officials told the Southe Califoia News Group a day earlier.

“We expect record-breaking passenger volumes during Memorial Day weekend as well as throughout the summer,” spokeswoman Nancy Suey Castles said, noting that travel website Orbitz put LAX at the top of its list of the 10 busiest airports Friday through Monday based on flight demand data.

Castles said she could offer specifics on whether LAX passengers would face long delays at TSA checkpoints.

The agency has come under fire in recent weeks because of reports of thousands of people missing flights due to lengthy wait times at several airports including Chicago’s O’Hare Inteational Airport.