After thousands of flights were delaye or cancele on Wednesday. The Federal Aviation Administration’s preliminary investigation points to a “damage database file” in a key system.
The agency is still working to determine the root case of the outage in NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions). Which alerts pilots and airports of real-time hazards and said that so far. There has been no evidence of a cyberattack.
NOTAM went dark late Tuesday, sparking safety concerns by the time morning began on the East Coast. The FAA ordere a nationwide pause on domestic flight departures.
A damage file may have cause the outage in an FAA system
A hotline was opene to address equipment issues by 5:58 a.m. ET. As some NOTAM functions began to come back online. By 9 a.m. ET. The system had been fully restore and flights began to resume. Airports urged travelers to check with their airlines for updates.
As of noon E.T. more 6,988 flights into, within or out of the country had been delaye, and just over 1,100 have been cancele altogether, according to data from the tracking site FlightAware. While some of the nation’s busiest airports like Logan Airport in Boston and DIA in Denver saw a few dozen cancellations each along with 100+ delays, the impact is being felt by travelers at airports across the system including at DCA in Washington, D.C., and AUS in Austin.
A damage file may have cause the outage in an FAA system
A total of 21,464 flights were schedule to depart U.S. airports on Wednesday with a carrying capacity of nearly 2.9 million passengers. Reuters reporte, citing data from aviation analytics company Cirium.
The FAA defines a NOTAM as “a notice containing information essential to personnel concerned with flight operations but not known far enough in advance to be publicize by other means.”
Pilots might receive NOTAMs about close runways, large flocks of birds, a plume of volcanic ash. Ice on a runway, or lights on tall buildings and towers.
Speaking to reporters during the flight pause, President Biden said he expecte to know more on the cause of the outage in a few hours.
“They don’t know what the cause is,” Biden said. “I told Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to report directly to me when they find out.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted there was “no evidence” of a cyber attack.
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Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, attacked the nationwide disruption as “completely unacceptable” and “the latest example of dysfunction within the Department of Transportation.”
He also alluded to possible congressional action, saying “the administration needs to explain to Congress what happened” and that congress should “enact reforms in this year’s FAA reauthorization.”
The national aviation agency has been acting without a permanent head since March, when a Trump appointee, Stephen Dickson, stepped down halfway through his five-year term.
President Biden’s nominee to lead the FAA, Phillip A. Washington, has yet to receive a Senate confirmation hearing.
Biden renominated Washington for the role as the new Congress was established last week. In the interim, the FAA is being led by the agency’s top safety official, Billy Nolen.
It was just a few weeks ago that the FAA was responding to another barrage of flight delays and cancellations, caused at first by a string of brutal winter storms during the busiest holiday travel season but then by a logistical nightmare at Southwest Airlines.
Citing staffing shortages and an outdated computer system, the company canceled 16,700 flights over a 10-day period, leaving passengers, airline staff and mounds of baggage in limbo.
Wednesday’s ground stop came amidst a slower midweek travel period. Data from the Transportation Security Administration shows 1.6 million people went through airport security checkpoints Wednesday, down from 2.4 million on Dec. 29.