On Tuesday night, American Airlines faced an iPad meltdown and many flights were temporarily grounded by a software glitch.

"Some flights are experiencing an issue with a software application on pilot iPads. In some cases, the flight has had to return to the gate to access a Wifi connection to fix the issue", said American Airlines.

It has been reported that many flights were delayed around 8:30 p. m. local time and some for as long as three hours. In 2013, pilots started making use of iPads in the cockpit of American Airlines passenger planes. It has replaced pounds of paper reference material.

According to the airline spokesperson, there are 8,000 iPads and this is reportedly the first time that the device was a problem.

As per American Airlines report, the issue was rooted in a problem with software application on iPads. Andrea Huguely, American Airlines director of corporate communications said that because of this problem about two dozen flights of varying fleets had to be grounded.

Huguely said that they apologize for the trouble to customers. The company is putting efforts to solve this problem as soon as possible. The company is also providing help to customers to reach their destination.

The crew said that the flight plans are transmitted on the iPads. Back in 2013, American Airlines became the first airline to have its pilots depend wholly on iPads for flight plans and navigation. It has been estimated that this new electronic version helps to save 400,000 gallons in fuel each year. As per the Dallas Morning News, many flights are affected and it is not clear what has caused the glitch.