Programming Glitch Left American Airlines With 12,000 Flights in July Without Pilots

The flight crew left American Airlines in July without being rostered to fly the flights because of a programming error.

The glitch appears to have happened on Friday when the roster software, which is called the trip trade with open time system, mistakenly allowed pilots to drop blocks of flights which had already been assigned to them back into the system.

Hundreds of pilots dropped thousands of sequence back into the trading system after learning of the error. Around 12,000 flights were accounted for by the dropped sequence.

The union that represents AA's pilots blamed the airline's mismanagement for the problem. The Allied Pilots Association suggested it would use the fiasco to get incentives for pilots to work over holidays.

A spokesman for American confirmed that the system had a technical issue. Some trip trading transactions were able to be processed when they shouldn't have been allowed.

The majority of the affected trips have been restored and we don't anticipate any operational impact because of it.

All eyes are on the major U.S. airlines as they prepare for the Independence Day weekend.

As part of a two-year offer, American Airlines gave pilots a pay rise of up to 16.9%. The deal has not been accepted by the pilots at the carrier.

As an international flight attendant, Maszczynski worked at the most prominent airline in the Middle East and has been flying for a well-known European airline. He is an expert in passenger experience and human-centered stories. Some of the biggest names in journalism rely on Matt's industry insights, analysis and news coverage often.