A computer glitch forced the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to temporarily suspend all domestic flights from the US on Wednesday morning, with the White House ruling out the possibility of a cyber attack at this stage.
The FAA repealed at 09:00 on the country’s east coast (14:00 GMT) the ban on all starts, confirming in a tweet that “normal air traffic operations will gradually resume” across the country.
She had already warned that flights could resume once problems with a crucial information system for pilots and crews were resolved.
The outage began overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday. The FAA clarified “continuing to investigate the cause of the initial problem”.
All domestic flights departing from the United States had to be suspended until 9 a.m., with the exception of Newark Liberty airports (western suburbs of New York) and Atlanta, where flights could resume earlier to avoid excessive traffic congestion.
An employee at Los Angeles International Airport walks past a plane docked at a gate on January 11, 2023 / AFP
Asked about the issue, US President Joe Biden said he spoke with his transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, but that he did not know the cause of the breakdown at this time.
“Airplanes can still land safely, but not take off at this time,” Biden said before the takeoff ban was lifted.
Regulators “don’t know what the cause is, they expect to have a better idea in a few hours and will act accordingly,” he added.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said on Twitter that at this time there was “no indication that this was a cyber attack”.
– From Baltimore to Ottawa –
Several airports in North America (Ottawa, Baltimore, Austin, Boston…) had warned that delays could be expected and asked travelers to check the status of their flights before going to the airport.
The US company United Airlines confirmed in a message sent to AFP that the FAA had lifted the suspension and that its operations had resumed.
“Customers may continue to experience delays and cancellations while we work to restore our program and should check” the company’s app or website for the latest information about their flights, United added.
Passengers wait near their gate at Los Angeles International Airport on January 11, 2023 / AFP
“We are monitoring the situation closely and working with the FAA to minimize disruption to customers,” American Airlines said in a separate statement.
This episode of disruption at US airports comes some time after major chaos triggered at Christmas time by a wave of extreme cold accompanied by snowfall, and which had been extended for several days by cascading cancellations within the Southwest airline.
The Notice To Air Missions (NOTAM) system affected by Wednesday’s outage provides information to aircrew about risks, airport developments and other critical information.
This system is “essential in the information required for the conduct of ground/air operations”, explained AFP Michel Merluzeau, analyst for the AIR Cabinet.
“This may include airport information, special activities such as military operations or temporary flight restrictions,” he continued.
There were nearly 4,600 delayed flights in the US at 9:25 a.m. (14:25 GMT) on the country’s east coast, according to flight tracking site Flight Aware. The number of delays associated with the outage was unclear.
A total of 21,464 flights are expected to take off from the US on Wednesday, with the vast majority being domestic routes, according to figures from specialist firm Juliett Alpha. Around 2 million passengers are potentially affected by the incident.
US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on Twitter that he had called for an investigation “to determine the causes (of the crash) and recommend next steps”.
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