Three flights were diverted Thursday from landing at San Diego's Lindbergh Field and departures were briefly halted after a Federal Aviation Administration radar facility briefly lost some of its radio communication capabilities.
The outage at the Terminal Radar Approach Control center, known as TRACON, near Marine Corps Air Station Miramar lasted from 11:45 a.m. to shortly after noon, FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said.
The outage forced the diversion of two flights to Phoenix and one to Los Angeles, airport officials said. It delayed the departures of 18 flights, Gregor said.
The FAA is investigating the cause of the outage.
Meanwhile, a Continental Express flight carrying 53 passengers from Hartford, Conn., to Cleveland made an emergency landing in Syracuse, N.Y., after the pilot reported a strange odor in the cockpit.
Tony Mancuso, commissioner of aviation at Syracuse's Hancock International Airport, said there were no injuries, and that investigators believe the odor may have come from an overheated wire.