U.S. computer outage leads to hundreds of flight delays – CBC.ca
World·Updated
A computer outage at the Federal Aviation Administration brought flights to a standstill across the U.S. on Wednesday, with hundreds of delays quickly cascading through the system at airports nationwide.
While dozens of flights were cancelled, FAA expects departures to resume this morning
The Associated Press
·
A computer outage at the Federal Aviation Administration brought flights to a standstill across the U.S. on 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. ET, 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. ET, 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.
In its most recent update, the FAA said it was “making progress in restoring its Notice to Air Missions system [NOTAM] following an overnight outage.”
It said around 8:20 a.m. ET that departures were resuming at key nodes in Atlanta and Newark, N.J., and were expected to resume at other airports by 9 a.m. ET.
The delays had been concentrated along the East Coast, but were beginning to spread west.
Given an FAA system outage, we advise all US-bound passengers to check the status of their flight before heading to the airport. https://t.co/8EcwDAKGfG
Several flights to U.S. destinations on the departure boards of Canadian airports are showing delays of from 30 minutes to over an hour.
Canada’s major airports advised travellers with U.S. routes to check with their airlines about flight status before heading to the airport.
Outage cause not yet clear
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said U.S. President Joe Biden was briefed on the situation and had directed the Department of Transportation to investigate. There was no evidence at this point that the outage was caused by a cyberattack, Jean-Pierre said.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a tweet that he is in touch with the FAA and monitoring the situation.
Biden addressed the FAA issue on Wednesday before leaving the White House.
“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.”
Before commencing a flight, pilots are required to consult NOTAMs, which list potential adverse impacts on flights, from runway construction to the potential for icing. The system used to be telephone-based, with pilots calling dedicated flight service stations for the information, but has now moved online.
All aircraft are required to route through the system, including commercial and military flights.
Aviation analytics firm Cirium data indicates that more than 21,400 flights were scheduled to depart U.S. airports on Wednesday. The carrying capacity of those flights was nearly 2.9 million passengers, though it’s not clear how many tickets were sold.
With files from CBC News