All flights across the United States have been grounded this morning due to an outage in the Federal Aviation Administration’s computer system.
All outbound flights have been grounded until 9 a.m. ET (2 p.m. GMT) as the FAA works to restore its Notification of Air Tasks (NOTAM) system, which alerts pilots to potential hazards on their flight paths. Danger.
It said the delay would “allow the agency to verify the integrity of the flight safety information”.
Some 1,230 flights within, into and out of the United States were delayed today, while 111 other flights were canceled, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.com.
Most of the delays are concentrated on the East Coast.
“It’s a mess for the US airline industry,” said Sky News correspondent Mark Stone at Ronald Reagan Airport in Virginia.
“As of this morning, all flights have been grounded, although from the noise I just heard and what I just saw, they now appear to be flying again from Reagan DCA Airport in Washington.
“As of this morning, we were told there was a malfunction in the NOTAM system, which is part of the air traffic control system. It is critical for flights to be able to take off safely. As a result, the busiest airspace in the world, the airspace over the United States, is nothing like it is today. Opened as it should in the morning.
“Looking at flight tracking sites, it’s clear you can see flights flying around many cities in the US, but none of them are taking off. Passenger chaos, as you can imagine.”
Kennedy International Airport.FILE PHOTO: AP
“The FAA is working to restore its air task notification system,” the agency said.
“We are now doing final validation checks and reloading the system. The operation of the entire national airspace system has been affected.
“We will provide frequent updates as we make progress.”
In a later update, the agency said it was “still working to fully restore” the NOTAM system.
“While some functions are beginning to resume, the operations of the national airspace system remain limited.”
United Airlines said it has temporarily postponed all domestic flights.
Some tweeted that they were stranded due to a power outage, and a passenger at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport said there were no flights to the United States.
A total of 21,464 flights are scheduled to depart from U.S. airports today, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
These flights offer nearly 2.9 million seats.