Air travel across the U.S. was plunged into chaos early Wednesday as a crucial FAA system failure left planes unable to take off, prompting President Biden to order an investigation into the meltdown.
The NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) system, which warns pilots about flight hazards in real time, “failed” on Wednesday, the FAA said in an advisory notice.
It was the first time in history that NOTAM has gone down, Simple Flying reported.
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The FAA ordered a pause on all domestic departures until 9 a.m. Eastern Time while the issue was addressed.
“Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually across the United States following an overnight outage to the FAA’s Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system that provides safety information to flight crews,” the FAA said in a statement issued a few minutes before 9 a.m. ET. “The ground stop has been lifted. The agency continues to look into the cause of the initial problem.”
Earlier, the FAA said it had “ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures until 9 a.m. Eastern Time to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information.”
“All flights currently in the sky are safe to land,” the FAA later added. “Pilots check the NOTAM system before they fly. 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.”
At around 8:20 a.m., the FAA said departures were “resuming at Newark Liberty and Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson airports due to air traffic congestion in those areas,” before the wider pause was lifted less than an hour later.
“The President has been briefed by the Secretary of Transportation this morning on the FAA system outage,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre tweeted Wednesday morning. “There is no evidence of a cyberattack at this point, but the President directed DOT to conduct a full investigation into the causes. The FAA will provide regular updates.”
While the full extent of the disruption is not yet clear, flight tracking company FlightAware indicated that 4,314 flights were delayed within, into, or out of the United States as of Wednesday morning.
Air passengers vented their frustration about the delays on social media. “Anyone one else stranded?” DJ Patil, the former chief data scientist of the United States, tweeted early Wednesday, later adding that his flight was “officially canceled.”
“Gotta love when you book a 6 am flight trying to avoid travel delays, but due to a nationwide FAA system issue the flight is delayed anyway. Going to be a long day,” another user wrote.
One person said their flight was “stuck” on the tarmac at San Francisco International Airport for over an hour. “Pilot says in 29 years he’s never heard of this,” they added.
