Thousands of travelers trying to make it to their loved ones for the holidays were stuck at airports through much of Tuesday after American Airlines briefly grounded all its flights in the United States because of a technical issue and bad weather made those delays worse.fc188

The worst of the troubles were centered at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, which is American Airlines’s largest hub and is one of the country’s busiest airports.

The travel problems began on Tuesday morning when systems that are needed to release flights malfunctioned because of what American said in a statement was a vendor technology issue. Then came the weather: A system of storms that prompted a flood warning moved into the Dallas area and hundreds of flights were delayed even after the technical issue was resolved about an hour later.

By Tuesday night, only 15 percent of American Airlines flights at Dallas Fort Worth had departed on time, according to Cirium, an aviation data company. And earlier, the airline also requested that a ground stop for flights headed to the airport. That stop lasted for over four hours until about 8:30 p.m.

The thunderstorms caused average departure delays of more than two hours at Dallas Fort Worth for most of the day but began to decrease to just over an hour on Tuesday night, according to FlightAware, an aviation tracker. For many, the wait was much longer.

“The 7-hour — and counting — adventure of rescheduled and delayed flights has resulted in me spending more of Christmas Eve at the D.F.W. Pizza Hut Bar than with my wife, waiting for me in Tucson,” said Desmond Zantua, 35, of Queens, who had a layover in Dallas.

Donahoe was meant to be a tech-savvy change agent. A former C.E.O. of eBay and Bain and Company, he was hired to upgrade the company’s digital sales. Among his key backers was Phil Knight, Nike’s co-founder and chairman emeritus, who had befriended Donahoe in his Bain days.

China was the most outspoken of several Asia-Pacific countries that objected to the release of the water, citing fears that it could contaminate seafood, though most scientists have dismissed such concerns. The water had been used to cool the nuclear fuel rods destroyed in 2011 when the Fukushima plant, on Japan’s east coast, melted down after a devastating earthquake and tsunami.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.fc188

• fc188
• after
• Grow
• American
• delays