Delta flights delayed, canceled due to system outage

Delta released an update around 7 a.m. explaining that a power outage in Atlanta, the airline's headquarters, impacted the operations systems worldwide.

In addition to the delays, Delta said flight status boards across the country are incorrectly showing flights as "on time." Several applications were also affected, including the company's website.

Smith took solace in the fact the air conditioning on the plane was working and said it seemed everyone on board was fine.

Airline data company Flightaware said there were at least 858 cancellations and 7,359 delays across the global industry on Monday morning. It's unclear how many are related to Delta's problems and whether Delta's groundings are reflected in the numbers.