American Airlines passengers set for takeoff on Monday evening were dismayed to find out their flights had been delayed because of a glitch in the software running on pilots' iPads.
The airlines has confirmed to The Verge that "a few dozen flights" around the country were affected by a problem with the Jeppesen Mobile Terminal Chart app that provides pilots the flight plan for each flight, which is approved for use by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA).
"Some flights are experiencing an issue with a software application on pilot iPads," said Andrea Huguely, a spokesperson for American Airlines. "In some cases, the flight had to return to the gate to access a Wi-Fi connection to fix the issue. We are working to have them on the way to their destination as soon as possible."
The problem was first highlighted by Bill Jacaruso, a passenger on flight AA1654 who was supposed to arrive home in Austin from Dallas/Fort Worth with his wife and beagle. Jacaruso said his flight was set to leave at 8:20 p.m. Central Time, but the plane never took off. The pilot went over the intercom to tell passengers that the iPad used by his co-pilot stopped working. A few minutes later, it was the pilot's iPad that went blank.
Nearly an hour later, the pilot told the passengers that all airplanes in the American Airlines fleet of Boeing 737s, which are all equipped with iPads instead of the bulky flight manuals the airline chucked in 2012, were affected.
@bjacaruso Some flights are experiencing an issue with a software application on pilot iPads. We'll have info about your departure soon.
— American Airlines (@AmericanAir) April 29, 2015
Passengers from other parts of the country have also taken to Twitter to announce the delays. Kristin Thompson, a passenger flying from the JFK International Airport to Seattle, said the iPads of both pilot and co-pilot failed and had to be "completely rebooted."
@tomwarren flight 235, JFK to SEA; that surprisingly BOTH systems (iPads?) with the flight plans failed and had to be completely re-booted. — Kristin Thompson (@vashonkris) April 29, 2015
American Airlines planes in Chicago were affected as well.
@Adampasick same thing is happening in Chicago. Pilot and Co-Pilot had failure at the same time. #safetyconcern #americanairlines — Brock Berry (@BrockEnfield) April 29, 2015
American Airlines acquired permission from the FAA in 2012 to replace the 35-pound flight bags used by pilots and co-pilots with iPads equipped with flight kits from Boeing. The following year, the airline announced that it purchased some 8,000 iPads for its entire fleet, getting rid of the millions of pages in flight plans and other documents and reducing the cost of fuel once needed to carry the heavy flight bags.
Photo: Eric Salard | Flickr
