Computer glitch leads to significant delays for Southwest passengers at Sea-Tac

SEATTLE-TACOMA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT -- Hundreds of Southwest Airlines customers at Sea-Tac were affected on Wednesday because of a computer glitch.

The systemwide Southwest Airlines computer glitch grounded all outgoing and incoming Southwest planes for about three hours. Employees had to write boarding passes by hand as they waited for the glitch to get fixed.

Airport officials say they had incoming Southwest planes go to the cargo area of the airport to deplane passengers because there wasn’t any space at the gates since the departure planes were stuck there.

Q13 News spoke with Candace Alagata, who flew into Sea-Tac. She said she waited for about an hour inside before she was able to get off the plane.

“They let us get up and walk around a little bit, so most people were really nice about it. If it was, say, a couple more hours wait, it would have been a little different,” Alagata said.

Southwest Airlines gradually got their computer system online late afternoon. But the delays lingered at the ticket counters into the evening.