The Federal Aviation Administration is canceling a ground stop for flights across the US after a computer failure early Wednesday morning, causing thousands of delays that quickly spread through the system at airports across the country.
Earlier this morning, the FAA ordered all U.S. flights to delay departures until at least 9 a.m. ET. Due to heavy congestion, the FAA allowed flights to depart from Newark Liberty and Atlanta-Hartsfield-Jackson airports.
The agency said normal air traffic operations are gradually resuming in the US after the outage.
Over 3,700 flights were delayed and over 640 canceled earlier in the day.
The FAA said it is continuing to investigate the cause of the original problem.
Most of the delays were concentrated on the east coast, but began to spread to the west. Inbound international flights at Miami International Airport continue to land, but all departures have been delayed since 6:30 a.m., airport spokesman Greg Chin said.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tweeted that he is in touch with the FAA and is monitoring the situation.
More than 21,000 flights are scheduled to depart the US today, mostly domestic flights, and about 1,840 international flights are expected to operate from the US, according to aircraft maker Cirium.
Some medical flights may be cleared and the shutdown will not affect any military operations or mobility.
U.S. military Air Mobility Command flights were unaffected early Wednesday morning, said Air Force Colonel Damien Pickart, a spokesman for Air Mobility Command, who is responsible for all troop transport and supply flights, such as C-17s, carried by the presidential motorcade’s vehicles when he travels, as well as all flights that transport troops from one base to another. Air Mobility Command has been working with the FAA on this issue.
While the White House initially said there was no evidence of a cyberattack, President Joe Biden said “we don’t know” and told reporters he had directed the Department of Transportation to investigate the cause of the outage.
President Joe Biden addressed the FAA issue on Wednesday before leaving the White House to accompany his wife to a medical procedure at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside of Washington. He said he had just been briefed by Transportation Minister Pete Buttigieg, who told him they still haven’t determined what went wrong.
“I just spoke to Buttigieg. They don’t know what is the reason. But I talked to him on the phone for about 10 minutes,” Biden said. “I told him to report directly to me when they found out. Air transport can still land safely, just won’t take off right now. We don’t know what the reason is.”
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The FAA is working to restore the so-called air mission notification system. Before flying, pilots should review NOTAMs or Air Mission Notices, which list the potential adverse impacts on operations, from runway construction to the possibility of icing. The system used to be a telephone system and pilots called dedicated flight service stations for information, but now it has moved online.
Failures in the NOTAM system are rare.
“I never remember the NOTAM system failing in this way. I’ve been flying for 53 years,” said John Cox, a former airline pilot and now aviation security consultant.
According to FAA bulletins, the NOTAM system went down Tuesday at 8:28 pm ET, preventing new or revised notices from being sent to pilots. The FAA resorted to a telephone hotline to fly at night, but as daytime traffic increased, this overloaded the backup telephone system.
Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said US military flights were not affected because the military has its own NOTAMS system, separate from the FAA system, and the military system was not affected by the failure.
European flights to the US appear to have been largely unaffected.
Irish carrier Aer Lingus said flights to the US are continuing and Dublin Airport’s website says its flights to Newark, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles are on schedule.
“Aer Lingus plans to operate all scheduled transatlantic flights today,” the carrier said in a prepared statement. “We will continue to monitor, but do not expect any disruption to our services due to technical issues in the United States.”
It’s just another headache for US travelers who are facing holiday cancellations due to winter storms and Southwest Airlines’ HR disruption. They also faced long lines, lost luggage, cancellations and delays throughout the summer as travel demand soared due to the COVID-19 pandemic and faced staff cuts at airports and airlines in the US and Europe.
The FAA said it will provide frequent updates as it progresses.
