A group of young athletes found themselves grounded in San Diego after a computer glitch canceled hundreds of Southwest Airlines flights Friday.
Southwest passengers are enduring a third straight day of canceled and delayed flights as the airline struggles to resume normal operations.
The San Diego Stars baseball team needs to be in Orlando, Florida by Saturday for a game so flexibility is out of the question.
“It’s frustrating. It had to be on the day we have to go,” a player named Gehrig told NBC 7.
He’s concerned the team will have to forfeit after months of planning.
“This is real important,” he said.
The travel team is expected to arrive in Kissimmee, Florida to participate in the The Wilson DeMarini Elite World Series beginning Saturday, July 23. Unfortunately their flight to Orlando was canceled.
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One of the parents said thousands of dollars have been spent on the trip.
“Most of the team is already there so if the three kids don’t make it, it could cost us being able to play so we’ve got to get there somehow,” Gabriel Gardini said.
He said several parents and team supporters were working the phones Friday afternoon to find the boys a flight out of Southern California in time to get to the tournament.
Tracking service FlightStats Inc. reports about 300 Southwest flights had been canceled and 1,200 more delayed on Friday. That's after Southwest canceled nearly 1,500 flights and 4,500 others were delayed Wednesday and Thursday.
Southwest says it its managing through lingering disruptions. It says most of the cancellations are due to airline crews that can't get to their flights.
The airline says a router failure caused several technology systems to fail on Wednesday, and backup systems didn't work as expected. It says those systems have been fully restored.
