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A United Airlines ground stop has been lifted at multiple airports across the country. The ground stop impacted major hubs like Chicago O'Hare International Airport for hours, causing long waits and extensive delays for passengers arriving and departing. 

United said a "technology issue" prompted them to request the ground stop and hold departures at about 5:12 p.m. CT. They released a statement around 9 p.m. CT saying that issue had been resolved and they were working to get flights moving again. 

"We are working with customers to get them to their destinations after a technology disruption on Wednesday evening. The underlying technology issue has been resolved, and, while we expect residual delays, our team is working to restore our normal operations," the statement read. 

The ground stops also impacted major United hubs in Denver, Houston, San Francisco and Newark.

Flights already in the air were able to continue to to their destinations and United Express' regional flights were not affected, but were delayed going into some of airports due to a rippling traffic jam effect. 

The Federal Aviation Administration released a statement on the issue, writing, "We're aware United experienced a technology issue disrupting their operations. Some delays may continue as they work through the recovery process. We've offered full support to help address their flight backlog and remain in close contact with United."

Video taken by a passenger at O'Hare shows a line of United planes stopped on the tarmac that have recently landed, waiting because no gates are available.

United also sent a text message to passengers saying in part, "Due to a technology outage, we are temporarily holding some Untied flights at their departure airports to manage gate availability at destination airports. This may result in delays throughout the evening as we work to resolve the situation."

TheNews has learned that United is treating this as a preventable delay, which means they will pay for customer expenses like hotels when applicable, and that the outage is not related to concerns about cybersecurity in the airline industry. 

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy that he had "been briefed by United CEO Scott Kirby on their company's internal tech outage" and said the issue was specific to United and "not related to the broader air traffic control system."

Chicago O'Hare Airport was reporting departure delays averaging two hours as of 9:10 p.m. 

The ground stops only affected United flights.