Mass flight delays caused by an electronic communication failure at a Federal Aviation Administration facility drew new criticism. The Northeast was hardest hit by the delays prompted Tuesday by a glitch at a Hampton, Georgia, facility that processes flight plans for the eastern half of the U.S. By early evening, the FAA said that the situation around the country was returning to normal, with delays remaining in Atlanta and Chicago. At one point, an FAA Web site that tracks airport status showed delays at some three dozen major airports across the country. An FAA spokeswoman said there were no safety issues and officials were still able to speak to pilots on planes on the ground and in the air. She said she did not know exactly how many flights were affected, but she said it was in the hundreds. The FAA did not expect to have total figures until Wednesday. She said that in a 24-hour period the FAA processes more than 300,000 flight plans in the U.S. The official said the problem that occurred Tuesday afternoon involved a failure in a communication link that transmits flight plan data from the Georgia facility to a similar facility in Salt Lake City. As a result, the Salt Lake City facility had to process those flight plans, causing delays in planes taking off. She said the delays were primarily affecting departing flights. The official added that there was an unrelated hardware problem at the Hampton facility on Aug. 21 that resulted in issues processing flight plans. The FAA says on its Web site that a glitch that day involving the Hampton facility delayed the departure of at least 134 flights. Source: [1] http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jRgDahJp29m0syjpH485FiJuXktwD92QGASO0