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Why All US Flights Were Grounded And Delayed – What Happened?
For the first time since 9/11, all planes throughout America were grounded today when a critical Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) system failed over the course of the previous night.
Around 9 a.m. GMT, travelers began to complain about the cancellation of their flights.
The FAA, the US version of the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority, didn’t declare that all flights had been grounded until 11.30am.
The NOTAM system, which pilots use to access flight plans, communicate with air traffic control, and alert other pilots of hazards along flight paths, failed over night, leading to the grounding.
By 2pm GMT, the issue had been resolved and flights were beginning to take off again. However, the hours-long pause sent the day’s travel into chaos that is expected to last throughout the day, and could have a large knock-on effect.
European flights into the US appeared to be largely unaffected, although it is still early too say how the knock-on effect will impact European travellers.
WASHINGTON DC: Grounded planes at Washington Reagan airport on Wednesday morning after an FAA systems failure grounded all flights across the country
JFK New York: Grounded planes are shown at New York’s JFK on Wednesday morning as the delays continued
TAMPA: Passengers waiting for their flight at Tampa’s International Terminal 7A on Wednesday
According to aviation data company Cirium, more than 21,000 flights were scheduled to depart from US airports today, the majority of which were domestic journeys. Additionally, 1,840 international planes were anticipated to arrive in the US.
6,000 flights have already been delayed as a result of the outage, and several pilots have warned that there will be “massive” repercussions from the computer malfunction.
Nearly all commercial airline flights and flights operated by shippers are impacted by the FAA’s halt order.
The UK’s CAA told MailOnline that while it was aware of the problem and was keeping an eye on how things were developing, it was still too early to determine whether there would be any ripple effects.
It stated that there were, on average, 111 flights each day between the UK and US last week.
The agency reminded airlines that in the event of cancellation, they have a duty to their passengers to help passengers find an alternative flight or provide a refund.
London’s Heathrow Airport said US flights had continued to operate on Wednesday, with both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic confirming this.
Irish carrier Aer Lingus said services to the US continue, and Dublin Airport’s website showed that its flights to Newark, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles were running on schedule.
‘Aer Lingus plan to operate all transatlantic flights as scheduled today,’ the carrier said in a prepared statement. ‘We will continue to monitor but we do not anticipate any disruption to our services arising from the technical issue in the United States.’
Meanwhile, Several flights from Madrid airport to the United States were delayed on Wednesday morning, according to information released on the website of Aena, which operates the airport.
An American Airlines flight from Barcelona to Miami due to depart at 11:00am (1000 GMT) was also delayed until 13:50pm, Aena’s website flight data showed.
Paris international airports were also expecting flight delays, a spokeswoman for Aeroports de Paris (ADP) said on Wednesday.
‘We have been informed of a technical incident. At this stage there have been no flight cancellations but some delays are to be expected,’ she said.
ADP operates Paris Charles de Gaulle aiport and Orly airport.
Separately, an Air France spokesman said the airline is currently operating its flight schedule to and from the United States as normal, but continues to monitor the situation closely.
The Arrivals board is seen at JFK airport on January 11, 2023 in New York City
American Airlines flights parked at gates after flights were delayed nationwide after a Federal Aviation Administration computer issue caused a nationwide ground stop on all US flights at Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, 11 January 2023
Passengers wait in lines at the JetBlue counter after flights were delayed nationwide after a Federal Aviation Administration computer issue caused a nationwide ground stop on all US flights at Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, 11 January 2023
Some medical flights could get clearance and the outage did not impact any military operations or mobility.
Flights for the US military’s Air Mobility Command had not been impacted, said Air Force Col. Damien Pickart, a spokesman for Air Mobility Command is responsible for all the troop movement and supply flights, such as the C-17s that carry the president’s motorcade vehicles when he travels, but also all the flights that transport troops from one base to another.
Air Mobility Command was working with the FAA on the issue.
While the White House initially said that there is no evidence of a cyberattack, President Joe Biden said ‘we don’t know’ and told reporters he’s directed the Department of Transportation to investigate the cause of the disruption.
Biden addressed the FAA issue Wednesday before leaving the White House to accompany his wife to a medical procedure at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside of Washington.
He said he had just been briefed by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who told him they still had not identified what went wrong.
‘Buttigieg and I just chatted. They are unsure of what caused it. However, I spoke with him for around 10 minutes,’ Biden added.
“I instructed him to come straight to me when they learn,” he said. Air traffic can still safely land but cannot take off at this time. We are unsure of what caused it.
In a tweet, Buttigieg stated that he is in contact with the FAA and keeping an eye on the situation.
There is “no explanation,” according to airline industry experts, for the debacle, which is the most recent in a succession of embarrassing transportation problems for the US. They also criticized the Buttigieg and Biden administrations.
When asked by the Associated Press news agency for comment, the FBI did not react right away.
On January 11, 2023, passengers wait at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) instructed airlines to halt all domestic departures due to a system breakdown.
With difficulties at nearly all of the country’s main airports, delays and cancellations that started on the East Coast swiftly moved to the West.
In a statement, the FAA stated that it was trying to repair its NOTAM system.
The FAA stated, “We are now doing final validation tests and reloading the system.” “National Airspace System operations are impacted,”
The agency said that some functions are beginning to come back on line, but that ‘National Airspace System operations remain limited.’
The system that failed is part of a nearly century-old practice originally known as Notices to Airmen, that was originally modeled on a system for notices to mariners.
The system, which was changed to be called ‘Notices to Air Missions’ in 2021, is meant to alert pilots to hazards – from snow, volcanic ash or birds near an airport.
It also provides information on closed runways and temporary air restrictions.
The NOTAMs sent by the US Federal Aviation Administration are part of a global safety system managed through the United Nations’ aviation agency.
Pilots are required to review the notices, either printed on paper or on an iPad, before take-off.
The information provided can run up to 200 pages for long-haul international flights.
NOTAMs are written in a kind of encoded shorthand that had been originally designed to make communication more efficient.
Breakdowns in the NOTAM system appear to be rare.
‘I don’t ever remember the NOTAM system going down like this. I’ve been flying 53 years,’ said John Cox, a former airline pilot and now an aviation-safety consultant.
According FAA advisories, the NOTAM system failed at 8:28 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday preventing new or amended notices from being distributed to pilots. The FAA resorted to a telephone hotline in an effort to keep departures flying overnight, but as daytime traffic picked up it overwhelmed the telephone backup system.
The US military has its own NOTAMS system that is separate from the FAA system, and the military’s system was not disrupted by the outage, according to Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek.
This is just the latest inconvenience for US tourists who had to deal with holiday flight cancellations due to winter storms and a problem with Southwest Airlines’ staffing technology.
As travel demand roared back following the COVID-19 outbreak, they also encountered long queues, missing baggage, cancellations, and delays over the summer, as well as staffing reductions at airports and airlines in the US and Europe.
As it made progress, the FAA promised to give frequent updates.
