BackFlights in US grounded due to system outage at FAA
FAA said that it is working to fully restore the Notice to Air Mission Systems- but the National Airspace System operations remain limited
PremiumAll flights in the US were grounded on Wednesday due to a system failure at the US aviation regulator Federal Aviation Administration. The overnight outage affected the Notice to Air Mission Systems (NOTAM), a crucial notice to pilots for flying information.
A Notice to Air Missions alerts pilots about closed runways, equipment outages, and other potential hazards along a flight route or at a location that could affect the flight.
The Air Traffic Organization of FAA provides service to 45,000 flights every day across more than 29 million square miles of airspace. In terms of air traffic, nearly 2.9 million passengers fly in and out of the US daily.
In a statement, FAA said that it is working to fully restore the Notice to Air Mission Systems- but the National Airspace System operations remain limited. It has further ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures until 9 AM Eastern Time to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information.
The US aviation regulator further informed that departures were resuming at Newark Liberty International airport and Atlanta airport. Further, the FAA estimated that departures at other airports would resume around 9 AM Eastern Time.
“The President has been briefed by the Secretary of Transportation this morning on the FAA system outage. There is no evidence of a cyberattack at this point, but the President directed DOT to conduct a full investigation into the causes," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wrote on Twitter.
The ripple effect of outage at US flight operations is likely to result in hundreds of flight cancellations and thousands of flight delays, an industry expert said. The latest reports from flight tracking websites showed that over 100 flights were cancelled and more than 1000 flights were postponed.
“The FAA system that sends out important real-time flight hazards and restrictions to all commercial pilots- Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM)-is currently suffering a nationwide outage. United has temporarily delayed all domestic flights," United Airlines said. SouthWest Airlines also asked passengers to monitor flights originating on 11 Jan.
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