Flights across US grounded after computer outage

(CMR) Flights across the United States were grounded this morning after the Federal Aviation Administration said it experienced a computer outage.

The FAA said it had ordered airlines to stand flights down until at least 9 a.m. Eastern Time while it tried to restore its NOTAMS  or Notice to Air Missions system.

“We are performing final validation checks and repopulating the system now. Operations across the National Airspace System are affected, and we will provide frequent updates as we make progress,” the FAA said early Wednesday morning.

According to FlightAware, over 2,500 flights within, into, and out of the US were delayed as of around 8 a.m. Wednesday morning and nearly 250 flights were listed as cancelled.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden was briefed on the situation Wednesday morning.

“There is no evidence of a cyberattack at this point, but the President directed (the Department of Transportation) to conduct a full investigation into the causes,” she said.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a tweet that he had “been in touch with FAA this morning about an outage affecting a key system for providing safety information to pilots.”

“FAA is working to resolve this issue swiftly and safely so that air traffic can resume normal operations, and will continue to provide updates,” he said.

“We are performing final validation checks and repopulating the system now,” the FAA said in an earlier tweet just before 7 a.m.

“While some functions are beginning to come back online, National Airspace System operations remain limited,” it said.

One US Airport said, “arriving & departing passengers can expect delays this morning & through the day,” and advised that passengers contact their airlines to check the status of their flights.