WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Due to a serious computer glitch, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered airlines to ground all domestic flights until 9 a.m. local time in Washington (3 p.m. CET). The FAA made the announcement via Twitter on Wednesday.

In the morning, the system that provides pilots and ground personnel with important safety information and notifications of disruptions in flight operations had failed. Initially, the impact on air traffic had been unclear.

Technicians were reportedly now working to fix the problem. The system had been restarted, the FAA explained via Twitter. Some of the functions were already available again, but there were still restrictions.

As of Wednesday morning (local time), more than 1,200 flights within, to or from the U.S. had been delayed, and about 100 had been cancelled, according to the website flightaware.com. Lufthansa flights to and from the U.S. were not affected by the FAA disruption, the airline told Deutsche Presse-Agentur./htg/DP/jha