Some flights canceled Sunday in Columbia after a nationwide ground stop

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Columbia Regional Airport has canceled three flights originally scheduled to take off early Saturday morning, but 31 other flights remain scheduled. COU's first scheduled American Airlines flight took off to Chicago around 6:15 a.m.

The cancellations followed a ground stop that lasted over four hours Friday, starting in the afternoon and ending in the evening. The ground stop required all flights at airports around the country to remain on the ground after a failure in the air traffic control system, according to ABC News.

Thousands of flights were canceled Friday night across the nation, including some at COU, which airport director Mike Parks said would continue Saturday. While most flights are scheduled to take off as normal, three were marked 'canceled' on the COU website. ABC 17 News is working to confirm whether the cancelations are connected to the ground stop.

An American Airlines flight scheduled to fly out to Dallas/Fort Worth at 6:47 a.m. was canceled. Another American Airlines flight was canceled, headed to Charlotte, North Carolina, at 7:27 a.m. A United Airlines flight going to Denver, Colorado, at 9:01 a.m. was also canceled.

All arriving flights are all marked as scheduled.

The St. Louis Lambert International Airport has a significant number of flights either canceled or delayed. Some flights that were scheduled to head out to various destinations Friday night, during or shortly after the ground stop, are now scheduled to take off Saturday morning.

The Kansas City International Airport also has cancellations of departing flights. Morning flights had the most cancellations.

Check back for updates.