Flights have now resumed with major delays. Updated story here
Hundreds of US flights were grounded early on Wednesday morning as the U.S. Air Traffic Control system encountered a glitch.
The FAA released a statement via Twitter saying it was “working to restore its Notice to Air Missions System” and promising regular updates.
The FAA is working to restore its Notice to Air Missions System. We are performing final validation checks and reloading the system now.
Operations across the National Airspace System are affected.
We will provide frequent updates as we make progress.
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023
As of a subsequent update at 06:57 am E.S.T., some systems are coming online but are not fully operational yet.
The Press secretary released a statement via Twitter saying the President has been briefed and that there is no evidence of a cyber attack on the FAA’s systems but that a full investigation will be conducted.
The President has been briefed by the Secretary of Transportation this morning on the FAA system outage. 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.
— Karine Jean-Pierre (@PressSec) January 11, 2023
US Flights Cancelled and Delayed
The FAA, whose mission is to provide the world’s safest, most efficient aerospace system, says they are still working on resolving the issue.
Airlines have been forced to cancel and delay flights, with flightaware.com reporting 1,230 delayed flights and 1,361 cancellations as of 07:21 am E.S.T.
At 07:19 am E.S.T., the FAA announced a further update requesting airlines “pause all domestic departures until 9 am Eastern Time to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information.”
Update 3: The FAA is still working to fully restore the Notice to Air Missions system following an outage.⁰⁰The FAA has 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.
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023
What Is A NOTAM?
NOTAMs indicate the real-time and abnormal status of the National Airspace System impacting every user.
The FAA describe A Notice To Air Mission (NOTAM) as a “notice containing information essential to personnel concerned with flight operations but not known far enough in advance to be publicized by other means. It states the abnormal status of a component of the National Airspace System (NAS) – not the normal status.”
Passengers Complaints
Passengers have taken to Twitter to express their frustration and confusion.
Obviously LOTS of flights in the air already before "outage" announced. Can you please confirm if those flights are continuing to planned destinations for their landing?
— Tiffany Alaniz (@TiffanyAlaniz) January 11, 2023
Now being asked to leave the plane, updates in 2 hours
— Andrew Gerle (@andrewgerle) January 11, 2023
Have you been affected by the A.T.C. issues? Is your plane currently grounded? Let us know how you’re affected in the comments. U.S
