Flights departures resume as US President Joe Biden said there was no immediate information on what had caused the computer outage that rocked the US aviation
A computer outage at the Federal Aviation Administration brought flights to a standstill across the U.S. today (Wednesday), with hundreds of delays quickly cascading through the system at airports nationwide.
The FAA ordered all U.S. flights to delay departures until at least 9 a.m. Eastern, though airlines said they were aware of the situation and had already begun grounding flights.
Delays and cancellations accelerated rapidly, with more than 3,700 stuck on the ground around 8:30 a.m. Eastern, more than all the delayed flights for the entirety of the previous day, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. More than 550 have been cancelled, and that number was ticking higher quickly.
Those numbers are likely to grow, and the groundings impact almost all aircraft, including shipping and passenger flights.
READ ALSO GTBank Guilty of Money Laundering, UK Slams £10m Fine On Bank
FULL LIST: Five Worst Universities in Nigeria Unveiled
How AMAA Founder, Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, Died
Principal Of Nigerian School Where Pupils Engage In Sex Romps Gives Details
More than 21,000 flights were scheduled to take off in the U.S. today, mostly domestic trips, and about 1,840 international flights expected to fly to the U.S., according to aviation data firm Cirium.
Some medical flights can get clearance and the outage is not impacting military operations.
Early Wednesday, flights for the U.S. military’s Air Mobility Command had not been impacted, said Air Force Col. Damien Pickart, a spokesman for Air Mobility Command is responsible for all the troop movement and supply flights, such as the C-17s that carry the president’s motorcade vehicles when he travels, but also all the flights that transport troops from one base to another. Air Mobility Command was working with the FAA on the issue.
While the White House initially said that there is no evidence of a cyberattack, President Joe Biden said “we don’t know” and told reporters he’s directed the Department of Transportation to investigate the cause of the disruption.
President Joe Biden addressed the FAA issue Wednesday before leaving the White House to accompany his wife to a medical procedure at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside of Washington. He said he had just been briefed by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who told him they still had not identified what went wrong.
“I just spoke to Buttigieg. They don’t know what the cause is. But I was on the phone with him about 10 minutes,” Biden said. “I told him to report directly to me when they find out. Air traffic can still land safely, just not take off right now. We don’t know what the cause of it is.”
Buttigieg said in a tweet that he is in touch with the FAA and monitoring the situation.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.
Most delays were concentrated along the East Coast, but were beginning to spread west. Inbound international flights into Miami International Airport continued to land, but all departures have been delayed since 6:30 a.m., said airport spokesman Greg Chin.
The FAA said it was working on restoring its Notice to Air Missions System.
“We are performing final validation checks and reloading the system now,” the FAA said. “Operations across the National Airspace System are affected.”
The agency said that some functions are beginning to come back on line, but that “National Airspace System operations remain limited.”
United Airlines said that it had temporarily delayed all domestic flights and would issue an update once it learned more from the FAA. American Airlines said that it was closely monitoring the situation.
Julia Macpherson was on a United Airlines flight from Sydney to Los Angeles on Wednesday when she learned of possible delays.
“As I was up in the air I got news from my friend who was also traveling overseas that there was a power outage,” said Macpherson, who was returning to Florida from Hobart, Tasmania. Once she lands in Los Angeles, she still has a connection in Denver on her flight to Jacksonville, Florida.
She said there have been no announcements on the flight about the FAA issue.
Macpherson said she had already experienced a delay in her travels because her original flight from Melbourne to San Francisco was canceled and she rebooked a flight from Sydney to Los Angeles.
The FAA is working to restore what is known as the Notice to Air Missions System.
Meanwhile, The stop order according to CNN place after the failure of its NOTAMS — or Notice to Air Missions — system was lifted by the FAA shortly before 9 a.m. Eastern Time as the agency said normal air traffic operations were resuming across the country. It said it was still trying to determine the cause of the problem.
It was anticipated that some airlines could continue to delay or cancel flights because of ongoing congestion caused by the incident. An airline source familiar with the situation said airlines may implement ground delay programs, which could potentially lead to further timetable issues.
Airlines for America, an association representing US airlines, earlier said the outage was “causing significant operational delays.”
Major US carriers including United Airlines , Delta and American Airlines all said had grounded flights in response to the situation.
US President Joe Biden said there was no immediate information on what had caused the outage — the second US aviation crisis in a matter of weeks.
AP
