Alaska Airlines briefly grounds flights due to technical issue

SEATTLE (AP) — Alaska Airlines briefly grounded all flights Wednesday due to a technical issue. The Seattle-based airline says it requested a ground stop for all Alaska and Horizon air flights out of an abundance of caution after experiencing an issue during upgrades to the system that calculates “our weight and balance.” The ground stop lasted about an hour and flights resumed at 8:30 a.m. Pacific time. Residual delays are expected throughout the day. The grounding came as Senate committees held dual hearings examining allegations of major safety failures at Boeing, which has been pushed into crisis mode since a door-plug panel blew off a 737 Max jetliner during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.