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 ground stop has been lifted.
The agency continues to look into the cause of the initial problem.
The problem was first reported shortly before 6.30am EST, with the FAA announcing an outage of its NOTAM system.
By 9am, it had been resolved and flights were beginning to take off again after a two-and-a-half-hour ground order.
Update 5: 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. The ground stop has been lifted.
We continue to look into the cause of the initial problem
Departures from Newark Airport in New Jersey - one of the major New York City airports - and Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson - one of the busiest airports in the world - are 'resuming', according to the FAA.
So far 4,000 flights have been delayed by the outage - with more delays expected throughout the day.
The FAA says flights are expected to take off again from 9am.
Passengers traveling from London to Dallas stuck on grounded plane for three hours
Passengers on Americans Airlines Flight 51 have been on their plane waiting to depart London for Dallas, Texas because of the FAA outage.
Dallas resident Shabnam Amini posted a tweet saying they were supposed to depart at 9:55a local time in London but three hours later, have still had not taken off.
They were informed that there were delays because of the FAA outage prior to boarding, Amini told CNN, but proceeded to get on the aircraft anyway.
FlightRadar has reported that the flight took off around 1p local London time.
Disgruntled travelers stranded at Tampa International Airport
Disgruntled travelers have told DailyMail.com they are having to cancel long-standing plans because of the FAA systems failure chaos.
Elspeth Nairn was meant to be heading out of Tampa International Airport this morning to help her sister who lives in Kona, Hawaii and has broken her hip.
‘I’m left with no choice but to cancel everything and rebook for Friday,’ retired Nairn, of Bradenton, Florida, said. ‘My flight was meant to go through Phoenix and that one was also cancelled.
‘So I’m leaving the airport and going home now. I’m rebooking for Friday, because that looks like the earliest I can make it. It’s better to cancel and let this hubbub clear.
‘I’m very disappointed. My sister had fallen and broken her hip and the purpose of my trip is to help her.’
Electrical safety engineer Daryl Leak, waiting for a flight to Dallas and a connection to Denver, Colorado, told DailyMail.com: ‘This is my second delay in five days. If it’s not sorted within the next 20 minutes I’m going to be forced to cancel and go home because I’m not going to make any connection.
‘I’m an electrical safety inspector and I’m working. But it looks like everything will have to be pushed back. It’s incredibly annoying.’
Leak, from Tampa, said his previous delay eventually saw him driving 650 miles from Raleigh, North Carolina, to his home. ‘I was at Raleigh-Durham airport and they cancelled me at 9pm. The next flight was 4.30pm next day so I drove – nothing else for it.’
As the morning wore on at Tampa International, more and more passengers were being processed through TSA security – but with no flights to board.
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, 2023As many as 3,704 flights have been delayed by the outage - with more delays expected throughout the day.
The system went down sometime before 6.30am EST on Wednesday. The cause of the failure is unclear. President Biden told reporters that he had spoken with Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg and ordered a full investigation.
Departures from Newark Airport in New Jersey - one of the major New York City airports - and Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson - one of the busiest airports in the world - are 'resuming', according to the FAA.
Other departures from different airports are expected to resume at 9am.
Departures are resuming at Newark Liberty and Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson airports due to air traffic congestion in those areas, according to the FAA.
'We expect departures to resume at other airports at 9 a.m. Eastern Time,' the tweet said.
Newark had tweeted: 'Air traffic control issues nationwide may affect EWR Airport flights. Contact your airline for flight status.'
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, 2023All flights currently in the sky are safe to land, the FAA said in the latest update.
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, 2023The White House said that there is no evidence of a cyberattack, but President Joe Biden directed the Department of Transportation to investigate the cause of the disruption.
President Joe Biden addressed the FAA issue Wednesday before leaving the White House. He said he had just been briefed by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who told him they still had not identified what went wrong.
'I just spoke to Buttigieg. They don't know what the cause is. But I was on the phone with him about 10 minutes,' Biden said. 'I told him to report directly to me when they find out. Air traffic can still land safely, just not take off right now. We don't know what the cause of it is.'
Buttigieg said in a tweet that he is in touch with the FAA and monitoring the situation.
I have 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.
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) January 11, 2023Wednesday saw thousands of flights across the US grounded by the the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), due to a failure in the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAMs) system.
In the world of aviation, NOTAM is an unclassified notice that contains vital information for those concerned with flight operations, while not being delivered far enough in advance to be in the public realm through other means.
A NOTAM is filed with a country's aviation authority - in the case of the US, the FAA - to alert other pilots of any hazards on their route.
The authority then distributes these notices to relevant pilots.
A NOTAM 'states the abnormal status of a component of the National Airspace System (NAS) – not the normal status,' the FAA website explains.
Among the hazards flagged by NOTAM include air shows, parachute jumps, rocket launches, as well as changes in operations such as runway closures or airspace restrictions caused by military exercises.
Criticism has ben levelled at NOTAMs which can go up to 200 pages for long-haul international flights.
In 2017, an Air Canada flight nearly crashed into four other airlines as it attempted to land in San Francisco.
The flight misidentified a taxiway as a runway. Information about the adjacent runway being closed was buried in the NOTAM.
Total cancelations for flights leaving or entering the United States by 8 a.m. Wednesday morning stood at 306, according to tracking website FlightAware.
And 2,512 flights had been delayed.
As of 8am, 306 flights canceled and 2,512 flights into or out of the U.S. delayed
Update 3: The FAA is still working to fully restore the Notice to Air Missions system following an outage.⁰⁰The FAA has 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 FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023The 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, 2023All flights across America have been grounded this morning until at least 9am EST by an FAA systems failure that has left thousands of people stranded at airports..
The problem is with the Notice to Air Missions System, which pilots use to access flight paths and communicate with air traffic controllers about hazards.
That system went down sometime before 6am EST on Wednesday morning and as of 7.30am, it remains unfixed.
In the interest of safety, the FAA has grounded all commercial and private planes.
The cause of the failure is unclear. President Biden told reporters on Wednesday morning that he had spoken with Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg and ordered a full investigation.
Planes can still land safely, but none are allowed to take off domestically for at least another hour.
English (United States) ·