FAA stops all flight departures after massive, unprecedented software outage
The Federal Aviation Administration halted all domestic flight departures Wednesday morning while it scrambled to fix a critical pilot notification system that suffered a massive, unprecedented outage.
FAA officials froze all departures until 9 a.m. while it worked to bring the Notice to Air system back online.
“While some functions are beginning to come back on line, National Airspace System operations remain limited,” the agency tweeted.
President Biden said he spoke to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg about the problem.
“I told them to report directly to me when they find out. Aircraft can still land safely, just not take off right now,” Mr. Biden said. “They don’t know what the cause of it is. They expect in a couple of hours they’ll have a good sense of what caused it and will respond at that time.”
The system provides pilots with vital safety information on potential hazards and airspace restrictions.
United Airlines said it temporarily delayed all domestic flights, and American Airlines said it was “working with the FAA to minimize disruption to our operation and customers,” according to CNN.
FlightAware, a key tracking site, reported 1,230 delays within the U.S. and more than 100 cancelations as of 7:30 a.m.
The morning chaos was the latest headache for flight travelers. Southwest Airlines had a holiday-period meltdown, forcing it to process thousands of requests for refunds.
