The Federal Aviation Administration says a communication failure at a Georgia facility that processes flight plans for the eastern half of the U.S. is causing flight delays around the country.

FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen says there are no safety issues and officials are still able to speak to pilots on planes on the ground and in the air.
She said she doesn't know how many flights are being affected.

Bergen says the problem that occurred Tuesday involves an FAA facility in Hampton, Ga., south of Atlanta, that processes flight plans. She says there has been a failure in a communication link that transmits the data to a similar facility in Salt Lake City.

As a result, the Salt Lake City facility has to process those flight plans, causing delays.

Meridian Regional Airport was among those affected, since its flights go to Atlanta.

Passengers boarded the 2 p.m. flight and were told to exit the plane moments later.

"They said there were 5,000 planes in the air that are just flying, that cannot land, because of the communications problems. And none of the planes that are allowed to take off either, so who knows?" said Toney Whites, a Meridian passenger who watched coverage of the problems on television.

"When I checked on their Web site to see if there were any connections to get to Raleigh, of course, they are later. And with this happening to everybody, it may be tomorrow when I get home," said Tracy White.

It turned out that the scheduled 2 p.m. flight was able to leave Meridian at
5:30 p.m.