Flights Resume After FAA Lifts Halt on Departures

Author: Editors Desk Source: WSJ:

January 11, 2023 at 12:42

The Federal Aviation Administration said it suffered an outage of its system that alerts pilots and crew to advisories and information for flights, prompting a temporary grounding order.

The Federal Aviation Administration lifted an early-morning order to pause domestic departures shortly after 9 a.m. ET after a critical alert system went down overnight. Some 6,700 flights departing or arriving in the U.S. were delayed, and a further 1,000 had been canceled as of 11:45 a.m., flight data specialist FlightAware reported.

Airport disruptions: Regular air traffic was starting to resume across the U.S., the FAA said in its latest update, but delays persisted and passenger frustrations mounted.

What happened: The FAA ground stop was the result of a glitch to the Notam system, which provides aviation personnel with vital information about flight operations, the FAA said. Officials tried to troubleshoot the problem before issuing a halt to flights. Biden administration officials and cybersecurity experts said the outage didn't appear to be the result of a cyberattack.

What happens next: The White House ordered the FAA to investigate the incident. The Senate's transportation committee also plans to examine the factors behind the system outage.

Check in here for fresh updates on the outage and its aftermath.