Flights grounded – latest: Airport chaos after FAA suspends all US domestic flights amid major outage
Flights beginning to resume as widespread disruption was a result of ‘major failure’ with IT system
Tfoso
Flights beginning to resume as widespread disruption was a result of ‘major failure’ with IT system
Planes turn back for airports as all flights in US grounded, tracker shows
Sign up to Simon Calder’s free travel email for weekly expert advice and money-saving discounts
Get Simon Calder’s Travel email
The Federal Aviation Administration has lifted its suspension on all domestic US flight departures following a major IT failure.
A key system used to notify pilots and ground staff of hazards and alerts suffered a “major failure” earlier today, with FAA engineers frantically scrambling to resolve it after the outage prompted a nationwide ground stop.
The fault lay with the NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) system, which keeps pilots and other airport staff updated about aviation hazards and airport facilities.
It stopped processing information this morning, forcing a temporary suspension of flights.
However, in its latest statement, the FAA said the ground stop “has been lifted”.
“Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually across the United States following an overnight outage to the FAA’s Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system that provides safety information to flight crews,” it added.
“The agency continues to look into the cause of the initial problem.”
Many airports averaging departure delays of 90 minutes
FlightAware data shows the following current delays at selected airports as of 9.45am ET.
Several airports are telling inbound flights to stay at their point of origin until 10am ET to allow backlogs to clear.
Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International
Boston Logan International
Reagan National
Newark Liberty International
John F Kennedy International
LaGuardia
Orlando
Chicago O’Hare
Oliver O'Connell11 January 2023 14:48
Widespread delays across east coast
The knock-on effect of the ground stop has begun to ripple across the US, occurring as it did when commuter flights were beginning one of the busiest times of the day.
FlightAware’s MiseryMap of delays and cancellations shows upwards of three-quarters of flights cancelled and delayed in New York, Boston, Washington Dc, Chicago, and Charlotte.
Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Denver, Detroit, and Minneapolis have also been badly impacted. As of 9.30am ET, west coast airports still appear unaffected but are also dealing with the impact of severe weather.
FlightAware’s MiseryMap shows huge proportions of delays and cancellation (red) versus on time services (green) at major air travel hubs across the US
(FlightAware)
Oliver O'Connell11 January 2023 14:29
‘Haven’t seen a ground stop like this since 9/11’
Gustaf Kilander explains why domestic air travel ground to a halt this morning.
Oliver O'Connell11 January 2023 14:15
FAA lifts nationwide ground stop
According to the latest statement from the FAA, normal air traffic operations are “resuming gradually across the United States following an overnight outage to the FAA’s Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system that provides safety information to flight crews”.
The nationwide ground stop has now been lifted.
“The agency continues to look into the cause of the initial problem,” said an FAA statement
Helen Coffey11 January 2023 13:55
Cause of outage unclear, says President Biden
President Joe Biden has ordered an investigation into the FAA system outage that grounded flights across the country this morning.
Biden told reporters at the White House he had spoken to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and they should have a good sense in a couple of hours of what triggered the outage.
“We’ll respond at that time,” Biden said. Asked if the outage was caused by a cyberattack, he said, “We don’t know.”
“They don’t know what the cause is,” Biden said. “Aircraft can still land safely just not take off right now. We don’t know what the cause of it is.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier in a Twitter post that there was no evidence of a cyber attack at this time.
Reporting by agencies
Reuters11 January 2023 13:53
Departures resuming at Newark and Atlanta, reports FAA
The Federal Aviation Administration has said that operations are resuming at two airports, Newark Liberty and Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, adding that it still expects all US departures to resume from 9am EST (2pm GMT).
“The FAA is making progress in restoring its Notice to Air Missions system following an overnight outage,” it said in a statement.
“Departures are resuming at Newark Liberty and Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson airports due to air traffic congestion in those areas.
“We expect departures to resume at other airports at 9am Eastern Time.”
Lucy Thackray11 January 2023 13:19
Airborne flights ‘safe to land’ in US, clarifies FAA
The FAA has clarified that all flights currently airborne and coming into the US are safe to land, despite the outage of the NOTAM system, which alerts pilots to hazards on their journey.
“All flights currently in the sky are safe to land,” said the federal agency in a tweet.
“Pilots check the NOTAM system before they fly.
“A Notice to Air Missions alerts pilots about closed runways, equipment outages, and other potential hazards along a flight route or at a location that could affect the flight.”
Lucy Thackray11 January 2023 13:16
What sort of IT outage is the FAA reporting?
The Federal Aviation Administration this morning reported that its NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) IT system was failing to process information.
The FAA describes NOTAM as as system which “indicate[s] the real-time and abnormal status of the NAS (National Air Space) impacting every user”.
It notifies both pilots and airport and ground staff of a number of incidents that may affect take-offs, landings and routes.
These could include: air shows and parachute jumps, military exercises affecting airspace, volcanic ash clouds, obstacles close to airfields, significant flocks of birds likely to cause bird strikes, or closed runways and taxiways.
Aviation analyst Alex Macheras told The Independent: “NOTAMs are essential for the safe continuation of global air travel.
“These essential notices and directives ultimately keep the world’s aviation sector, specifically flight crew and all personnel concerned with flight operations, informed and up to speed with latest air travel related directives, operational updates, security, weather and warnings.
“With a system failure affecting NOTAMs, operations will be disrupted almost immediately and this will soon be felt elsewhere across the world, including for flights waiting to depart to the US.”
Lucy Thackray11 January 2023 13:08
Flights ‘continuing to operate as planned’ - British Airways
A British Airways spokesperson has said its flights are “continuing to operate as planned”.
“Our flights to and from the US are continuing to operate as planned. We advise customers to check ba.com for the latest flight information,” said the spokesperson.
Heathrow Airports does not currently show any delayed or cancelled US flights.
Gates are currently closing on flights to Seattle, Tampa and Nashville.
Lucy Thackray11 January 2023 13:04
‘No evidence of cyberattack’ says Press Secretary
The White House’s Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has said there is “no evidence of a cyberattack at this point” on the FAA’s systems, and that an investigation has been launched into the cause of the outage.
“The President has been briefed by the Secretary of Transportation this morning on the FAA system outage,” tweeted Ms Jean-Pierre.
“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.”
Lucy Thackray11 January 2023 12:53
