An advisory said “Technicians are currently working to restore the system and there is no estimate for restoration the system at the times.” The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said its NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) system had “failed”.
News reports said on Wednesday, Flights across the United States have been affected by a technical glitch with a computer system in an unprecedented disruption. NBC News reported, quoting a source all flights in the US were grounded following the incident. Flight tracking website FlightAware reported about 760 flights within, into or out of the United States had been delayed as of 6:30 am US Eastern Time.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said its system that alerts pilots and other flight personnel about hazards or any changes to airport facility services and relevant procedures was not processing updated information.
In an advisory, the civil aviation regulator said its NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) system had “failed”. The website showed, though NOTAMs issued before the outage were still viewable. There was no immediate estimate for when it would be back.
NOTAM is the system used by the FAA to caution pilots and other aircraft personnel about potential hazards. It is also used to keep them updated about any changes to the airport facilities which they will be using. From Hawaii to Washington Passengers on social media reported flight delays and outages across the United States. According to The Washington Post Airports from Texas to Pennsylvania confirmed flights were impacted across the country.
Aviation expert Parvez Damania called it a “shocking and unheard-of situation”. He told NDTV over the phone “I don’t recall the last time when the entire airspace of the country was closed. Maybe during 9/11. This is going to cause unbelievable disruption.”
Flights across the United States were delayed on January 11 due to a glitch in the computer-based system of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that alerts aircraft personnel about potential hazards. According to the flight tracking website FlightAware at around 6:30 Eastern, there were 760 delays within, into or out of the United.