STORY: “American Airlines computers are down, we are deplaning…”

This is not how anyone wants to spend Christmas Eve.

But thousands of people across the U.S. were forced to pack their patience, Tuesday, as American Airlines issued an hour-long ground stop.

The carrier said a vendor technology issue briefly affected its ability to get planes into U.S. airspace… on one of the busiest travel days of the year.

“Oh, we were scared. We wanted to be back home with our family.”

Flights resumed, and passengers avoided being stranded at U.S. airports for an extended length of time.

But the news of so many flights being grounded had other people worried… like Jenise Hampton, traveling from New York’s La Guardia airport.

“Oh, I was very anxious when we woke up this morning, and we heard it on the news, we were afraid that we wouldn’t be able to get home for Christmas. But we were able to. We got here and our flight is on time. So we are relieved and ready to get going back to Alabama.”

Many others were keeping their fingers crossed for a smooth journey home:

“Well, I have very low expectations about how it will go. So it’s going fine because I’m still moving, the lines are moving, and we’ll be fine. I’ll get home at some point.”

The relatively brief stoppage means the carrier will likely avoid a full-scale meltdown that could ripple for days during the peak holiday travel season.

American – which operates thousands of flights per day to more than 350 destinations – was not immediately available to elaborate on the technical snag.