- FAA System Outage
- A Nationwide Technical Meltdown
On Wednesday morning, air traffic in the United States resumed gradually after a computer outage led to an emergency suspension of all flights by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA worked rapidly to resolve the issue and restore operations.
“For the first time since the September 11th attacks, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has grounded all domestic flights Wednesday morning after suffering a nationwide technical outage”, Fox Business reports.
According to NBC News: “The FAA said the crippling delays that affected thousands of flights appear to have been caused by a problem in the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system, which sends pilots vital information they need to fly.”
At 8:50 a.m., the FAA lifted its ground stop, allowing normal air traffic operations to begin again and alleviating congestion at airports nationwide. Despite the uplifting news, travelers were frustrated with flight delays due to the persistent backlog that had been created during the stoppage.
By 10:30 a.m., FlightAware, the online flight tracker, reported that over 6500 domestic and international flights were delayed with an additional 940 flights canceled.
After a thorough investigation, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reported that no evidence of a cyberattack had been found.