Alaska Airlines grounds all flights nationwide due to technical outage

Alaska Airlines halted all its flights nationwide due to a technical outage Thursday, marking the second such disruption in roughly three months.

"Alaska Airlines is experiencing an IT outage affecting operations. A temporary ground stop is in place," the airlines said in a statement. "We apologize for the inconvenience. If you're scheduled to fly tonight, please check your flight status before heading to the airport."

While the exact cause of the outage is still unknown, a similar IT glitch previously forced the airlines to suspend all flights for almost three hours in July, according to media reports.