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United ground stop lifted, but O'Hare delays continue

United Continental planes are back in the air after a computer problem grounded all flights, but delays at O'Hare International Airport could take a while to clear up.

Incoming planes were being held on the tarmac because all gates were in use, and passengers were dealing with delays of an hour or two this morning in Terminal 1.

Valerie Gabrione of Naperville was waiting for her parents, whose flight from Alaska landed at O'Hare at 8:40 a.m. but had not arrived at the gate an hour and a half later.

Her parents, from Cleveland, were returning from vacation on the red-eye flight and stopping off for a visit with Gabrione.

"Hopefully they'll look on the brighter side of things. But no one likes to sit at the airport," she said, as she alternated between checking her smartphone and looking at flight boards. Gabrione said her mom hadn't returned any of her texts recently and she wished more information was available.

United said the ground stop was ordered due to "network connectivity" issues on all United flights.

The ground stop delayed nearly 120 flights into and out of O'Hare, FlightStats website is reporting.

Larry Collins, of Lake Barrington, said he was due to take off from O'Hare at 7:15 a.m. but was pulled off his plane 15 minutes later due to the ground stop.

He said officials said a computer problem was reported to be the delay.

He said hundreds of people are waiting in terminals at O'Hare trying to catch a plane. The result is extra long lines at O'Hare coffee shops.

"I'm not irritated. I like to believe most things in life can be made better with an extra cup of coffee," he said. "Apparently, other people felt the same because there was an extra long line of people at Starbucks."

Kadye Brown of Orlando, Fla., arrived at O'Hare at 8:23 a.m. An employee of Cooper's Hawk Winery and Restaurants traveling on business, she had to wait an hour after landing before her plane could get a gate.

It was frustrating, she said, but passengers in her plane handled it well.

"Everyone was really tired and there was one crying baby, but everyone was very humane."

It is the second time in two months that the carrier has been hit by major technical issues.

The Chicago company had halted all takeoffs in the U.S. on June 2 due to what the airline described as computer automation issues.

The Federal Aviation Administration used the same language in its notice about the outage Wednesday.

United suffered a series of computer problems in 2012 after switching to a passenger information computer system previously used by merger partner Continental Airlines.

In each case, hundreds of flights were delayed. A number of high-paying business travelers defected to other airlines and revenue dropped.

"We don't know everything behind this morning's issues yet, but today's incident underscores the sense that something is very wrong at United," said Gary Leff, co-founder of frequent-flier website MilePoint.

Shares of Continental Holdings Inc. declined 76 cents to $53.55 in early morning trading.

• Daily Herald staff writer Lee Filas and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

A ground stop was lifted on all United Continental flights in the U.S. that were grounded earlier due to computer problems. Associated Press
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