Southwest flights resume after being grounded over 'technology issue'
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- Southwest Airlines paused flights at some airports across the US on Tuesday.
- The company said it was due to "intermittent technology issues."
- Flights resumed shortly after 11 a.m. ET, the FAA said.
Southwest Airlines paused flights at some airports across the country on Tuesday due to technical issues.
"As a result of the intermittent technology issues that we experienced, we should hopefully be resuming our operation as soon as possible," the company said on Twitter on Tuesday morning. "We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but we're hoping to get everyone going ASAP."
The FAA said on Twitter that the airline had requested it ground the airline's departures.
The delay impacted over 1,200 flights, according to FlightAware, a flight-tracking platform.
Flights began to resume shortly after 11 a.m. ET, the FAA said.
—The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) April 18, 2023
A spokesperson for Southwest told Insider that the issue was the result of a firewall failure.
"Early this morning, a vendor-supplied firewall went down and connection to some operational data was unexpectedly lost," the spokesperson said. "Southwest Teams worked quickly to minimize flight disruptions."