UPDATE: Computer glitch grounds Alaska Airlines planes

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SEATTLE (WKOW) -- The computer problem that has cut off Alaska Airlines' ability to put passengers on planes was caused by a combination of two fiber optic cuts in the Sprint system.

Sprint says one occurred at a construction site along railroad tracks between Chicago and Milwaukee, and the other was somewhere between Portland and Seattle.

If there had been only one disruption, the computer system would've been able to reroute the traffic. Officials say Monday's failure was caused by the combination of the two cuts. It also affected some other Sprint customers in parts of Washington, Oregon and California.

Officials hope one fiber optic line will be fixed by 5 p.m. Central, which should put Alaska Airlines back in business.

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SEATTLE (WKOW) -- A computer problem is causing significant delays for Alaska Airlines flights on Monday.

An airline spokesperson says the problem is with a data connection. The airline hasn't been able to check in passengers since 7:40 a.m. Monday.

Officials say technicians are trying to fix the problem as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, there are long lines of passengers at Sea-Tac Airport where Alaska is the biggest carrier.

Click here for more information regarding the outage.