ALBEMARLE COUNTY, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- Airports around the country continue to experience travel issues like weather delays or staffing shortages, but CHO Airport had another dilemma added to that list Tuesday afternoon as a number of flights were cancelled or delayed.

"We want to get back to our kids," said passenger Russ Crawford.

Visiting Charlottesville from Atlanta, Crawford and his wife were irritated to find out their flight had been canceled out of CHO Airport.

"That's what we are frustrated about," Crawford said.

Tuesday afternoon, a handful of flights were disrupted by what the FAA called a brief frequency issue.

"We were in line waiting to go back to Atlanta and the conversation we heard in the background was that the flight control towers were down," Crawford said.

"Apparently there was some sort of failure in the system, instruments that bring planes into the airport," said passenger Chris Pavlacka.

Pavlacka and his son came down for the day from New York to visit his parents who live in the area. He says he flies a lot.

"I'm a frequent flyer. I've had aircraft issues, I've had weather issues, but I've never had this happen before," he said.

This issue had him scrambling to make last-minute plans and overnight reservations. They decided to fly out of Richmond Wednesday morning.

"I booked a hotel just outside of Richmond airport," Pavlacka said.

Crawford and his wife had the same problem.

"Now, we don't have a hotel. Our airline wouldn't give any voucher for hotel or food so that was kind of frustrating," he said.

A few hours later, the FAA said the matter had been resolved. But the Crawfords still weren't able to fly out.

"Just frustrated," he said.

Before the issue was fixed, six flights were scheduled for departure. Four of those were cancelled and two were delayed.