Some Forced To Change Travel Plans After The FAA System Outage

More than one thousand flights across the country were canceled Wednesday and thousands more were delayed forcing some people, to change their plans at the last minute.

The cancelations and delays were caused by a system outage at the Federal Aviation Administration, preventing them from sending real-time alerts to pilots about runways or flight information and grounding planes from coast to coast. Shannon Wilburn had to get up at 3:45 Wednesday morning to be at Tulsa International for her flight to San Antonio for a work conference.

"I was through checking my bags, was through security in about ten minutes,’ Wilburn said.

When Wilburn got to her gate, she got some bad news, her flight had been delayed.

"Mine was already going to be an hour and a half late at that point,” Wilburn said.

With the FAA system outage expected last for several hours, Wilburn knew she had to come up with a plan, so she didn't miss more of her work conference than she already had.

"I am for sure missing lunch with the staff, and I know how these things go cause I travel for work quite a bit and once these little things happen it makes bigger issues later in the day,” Wilburn said.

She decided to hop in her car and drive the eight hours to San Antonio and made it with plenty of time to meet with her team.

"I am happy I am going to see my team. It's out of our control most of the time and I feel like you can be grumpy about it or you can choose to have a good attitude about it,” Wilburn said.

Tulsa International Airport said in a statement, “delays and possible cancellations are expected throughout the remainder of the day as airlines work to resume normal operations.”