The Federal Aviation Administration grounded flights nationwide Wednesday morning after a failure of the agency’s computer systems. This is the first time since 9/11 that all planes nationwide have been grounded.
In a statement early Wednesday, the agency said, “THE FAA is experiencing an outage that is impacting the update of NOTAMS. All flights are unable to be released at this time.”
NOTAMS, according to the FAA, is “a notice containing information essential to personnel concerned with flight operations but not known far enough in advance to be publicized by other means. It states the abnormal status of a component of the National Airspace System (NAS) – not the normal status.”
FAA OUTAGE ✈️ 🚨
An @FAANews advisory says a system failure is impacting flights nationwide. Reports coming in that flights are grounded everywhere.
Techs are working to restore the system but there’s no timeframe for when that could happen. @WFTV pic.twitter.com/F6rqIm163s
— Alexa Lorenzo (@ALorenzoTV) January 11, 2023
At 7:19 a.m., the FAA tweeted that it had ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures until 9 a.m. Eastern Time “to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information.”
The agency continued to update the public throughout the morning via Twitter:
All flights currently in the sky are safe to land. 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.
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023
Update 4: The FAA is making progress in restoring its Notice to Air Missions system following an overnight outage. Departures are resuming at @EWRairport and @ATLairport due to air traffic congestion in those areas. We expect departures to resume at other airports at 9 a.m. ET.
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023
At 8:50 a.m., the FAA tweeted that the ground stop had been lifted. “Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually across the U.S. following an overnight outage to the Notice to Air Missions system that provides safety info to flight crews.”
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White House spokeswoman Katherine Jean-Pierre tweeted that the president had been briefed on the situation by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Jean-Pierre said, “There is no evidence of a cyberattack at this point.”
The President has been briefed by the Secretary of Transportation this morning on the FAA system outage. 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.
— Karine Jean-Pierre (@PressSec) January 11, 2023
Just before 9 a.m., Mayor Pete announced that the system had been fully restored, adding that he would launch an “after-action process,” which is corporate-speak for “we’ll make a good show of trying to get to the bottom of this.”
FAA has determined that the safety system affected by the overnight outage is fully restored, and the nationwide ground stop will be lifted effective immediately. I have directed an after-action process to determine root causes and recommend next steps.
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) January 11, 2023
The FAA system failure comes on the heels of widespread flight cancelations by Southwest and other airlines over the holidays that stranded thousands of passengers.
In other news…
BREAKING: A travel nightmare is unfolding right now on Amtrak. Passengers on the Auto Train have been stuck on board for 29+ hours, currently sitting in the woods in rural South Carolina. Passengers called the local police saying they’re being held hostage.
LISTEN: pic.twitter.com/Jog4PHYT7G— Sam Sweeney (@SweeneyABC) January 11, 2023
