Phone failure halts airline traffic in area

Communications equipment failed at a regional air-traffic control center, shutting down all airline traffic within 250 miles of Memphis and causing a ripple effect across the country that grounded dozens of passenger and cargo flights.

The problem started when a major telephone line to the Memphis center went out. The Federal Aviation Administration said air-traffic control operations were back to normal about three hours later.

Air-traffic control centers in adjacent regions handled flights that were already in the air when the problem was discovered. High-altitude flights through the region -- which includes parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee -- were discontinued while the equipment was being fixed.