Because of computer problems at a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) center outside Atlanta, major airports across the U.S.A. had substantial delays Tuesday.

"FAA officials and controllers emphasized that safety was never compromised, because planes were kept on the ground until flight paths were approved. Controllers never lost communications with any of the thousands of airliners already headed for their destinations, and approach and takeoff procedures remained basically unchanged immediately around airports," wrote The Wall Street Journal.

Over 600 planes from a considerably large part of the United States, from Dallas and Chicago to the East Coast had been delayed, according to the FAA.

FAA spokeswoman Diane Spitalire said the agency had never gone through such a serious computer problem before. "We've had some equipment failures but not like this," she said.

The problem began shortly after 1:20 p.m., Eastern time, on the East Coast, when the facility near Atlanta, began rejecting flight plans. Thus agency employees from the backup center in Salt Lake City, Utah started introducing the information manually into the system. But the situation was soon way over their possibilities as airlines kept refilling plans in an effort to gain approval. The two facilities process all flight plans for commercial and general aviation flights in the United States, FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said.

The worst delays were in the Northeast, Bergen added. Chicago's Midway and O'Hare airports in Illinois were reporting delays of up to 90 minutes.

Though the Atlanta center remained out of service throughout Tuesday night, the Salt Lake City facility managed to handle all the demands in the end.