American Airlines flights will resume on Christmas Eve after a technical problem

STORY: “American Airlines’ computers are down, we’re getting off the plane…”

No one wants to spend Christmas Eve like this.

But thousands of people across the U.S. had to seize their patience on Tuesday when American Airlines imposed an hour-long ground stop.

The airline said a problem with the provider’s technology briefly affected its ability to bring planes into U.S. airspace … on one of the busiest travel days of the year.

“Oh, we were scared. We wanted to be home with our family.”

Flights resumed and passengers could not be stuck in US airports for long periods of time.

But the news that so many flights were grounded worried other people… like Jenise Hampton, who was traveling from New York’s La Guardia Airport.

“Oh I was very worried when we woke up this morning and we heard it on the news, we were worried we wouldn’t be able to come home for Christmas. But we did it. We came here and our flight is on time. So we’re relieved and ready to go back to Alabama.

Many others kept their fingers crossed for a smooth journey home:

“Well, I have very low expectations about how it’s going to go. So it’s going well because I’m still moving, the lines are moving and we’ll be fine. I’ll come home someday.”

The relatively short shutdown means the airline is likely to avoid a complete collapse that could drag on for days during the peak holiday travel season.

American, which operates thousands of flights daily to more than 350 destinations, was not immediately available to elaborate on the technical issues.