Nation IN BRIEF : THE EAST : Air Travel Delayed as Computers Fail

Thousands of air travelers were delayed for hours at airports over a 200,000-square-mile region when the main traffic computer at Leesburg, Va., failed and its backup broke down about half an hour later. Planes en route to Washington, D.C., were held on the ground at airports from New York to North Carolina to Detroit at a peak time of the airline’s busiest days of the week, Federal Aviation Administration officials said. Numerous flights were directed to bypass the Washington area entirely. “There have been computer glitches but nothing of this magnitude,” FAA spokesman Hugh O’Neill said.