Data Outage Disrupts Northwest Flights

Northwest Airlines Corp. said its flights are back to normal after a severed fiber-optic cable caused 100 cancellations at three major U.S. hubs. A construction accident severed a US West Inc. cable line that routes computer data throughout its system, causing disruption for almost four hours. The severed line “caused severe disruptions throughout operations,” leading to a suspension of all flights at Detroit, its largest hub, and half of those out of Minneapolis-St. Paul and Memphis, Tenn., said Doug Killian, spokesman for the St. Paul, Minn.-based carrier. The accident, which occurred at about 2 p.m. local time, threw off Northwest’s equipment for weighing and balancing departing aircraft as well other functions. US West spokeswoman Dana Smith said the line was accidentally cut by a worker laying cable for a competitor, McLeodUSA Inc. McLeodUSA, a local phone company based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, wasn’t immediately available for comment. US West’s backup system for the carrier also failed, Northwest’s Killian said. Northwest shares rose 88 cents to close at $19.13 on Nasdaq before news of the flight suspension was made public. US West closed off 13 cents at $70.44 on the New York Stock Exchange.