US sees gradual return to normal air traffic operations after tech glitch

Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually across the US on Wednesday following a technical failure in the system that provides safety info to flight crews.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted a ground stop on flights hours after it ordered airlines to delay all domestic departures until 9 am Eastern Time to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information.

“Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually across the US 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,” FAA said in a tweet.

Also read: Chaos after technical glitch grounds, delays flights across the US

The FAA earlier said it is making progress in restoring its Notice to Air Missions system following an overnight outage and departures are resuming at the Newark Liberty International Airport and Atlanta International Airport due to air traffic congestion in those areas.

“We expect departures to resume at other airports at 9 am ET,” it said.

Safe to land: FAA
“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,” FAA said.

Hundreds of flights across the US were grounded on early Wednesday morning following the technical failure in the system.

“The FAA is working to restore its Notice to Air Missions System. We are performing final validation checks and reloading the system now. Operations across the National Airspace System are affected,” FAA said in the morning.

Thousands of flights affected

According to FlightAware, a flight tracking company, more than 3,700 flights within, into or out of the US were delayed and more than 600 were cancelled.

US President Joe Biden was briefed by Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg 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,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a tweet.

Transportation Secretary Buttigieg said that he is in touch with the FAA and monitoring the situation.

With agency inputs