Flights resumed around 3 p.m. after a long hiatus. The White House has opened an investigation into the causes of the incident.
A computer failure forced the US civil aviation regulator (FAA) to temporarily suspend all domestic flight departures on Wednesday morning, causing numerous delays, with the White House ruling out the possibility of a cyberattack at this stage. The incident, which began overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, affected a crucial information system for pilots and crews.
To ensure the safety of air traffic, the FAA has decided to prevent all takeoffs of domestic flights until 09:00 on the east coast of the country (1400 GMT), the time to resolve the problem. Only the airports of Newark, located in the western suburbs of New York, and Atlanta were able to resume a little faster to avoid too much traffic congestion. According to the FAA’s latest tweet, “normal air traffic operations are gradually resuming” Across the country. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre assured a press briefing that the FAA was working “aggressively” to ensure that this situation “does not happen again”. The agency “keep looking for the cause of the initial problem“.
Asked about the subject before the take-off ban was lifted, US President Joe Biden said he spoke with his Minister of Transport, Pete Buttigieg, but did not know the origin of the breakdown for the moment. Regulators “expect to have a better idea in a few hours and will react then“, he said. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre claimed on Twitter that there was at this point “no sign of a cyberattack“.
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Nearly 6,000 flights delayed
In total, according to the specialized site Flight Aware, nearly 6,000 flights were delayed in the United States at 10:35 a.m. (3:35 p.m. GMT), with repercussions in Canada and Mexico. At Ronald Reagan Airport, located near Washington, the departure boards were riddled with red flags indicating delays.
“We’re gonna miss our match“Laments to AFP Lisa Nho, who is waiting with her almost two-year-old daughter for a flight to Texas, normally followed by another flight to Cabo, Mexico. “We were leaving when we got a text saying the flight would be delayed.“, she explained.
At Mexico City airport, several flights to the United States were also delayed, noted an AFP journalist. “Customers may continue to experience delays and cancellations as we work to restore our program, and should consult” the application or the company’s site to obtain the latest information on their flight, underlines the company United Airlines in a message. “We are closely monitoring the situation and working with the FAA to minimize disruption to customers.“, for its part assured American Airlines in a separate press release.
This episode of disruptions at American airports comes some time after a major chaos triggered at Christmas time by an extreme cold spell accompanied by snowfall, and which had been prolonged for several days by cascading cancellations within the Southwest company.
The Notice To Air Missions (NOTAM) system, affected by Wednesday’s outage, provides information to aircrew about risks, airport developments and other critical information. This system is “essential in the information required for the conduct of ground/air operations“, explained to AFP Michel Merluzeau, analyst for the firm AIR. “This may include airport information, special activities such as military operations, or temporary flight restrictions.“, he continued.
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A total of 21,464 flights are expected to take off from the United States on Wednesday, the vast majority being domestic routes, according to figures from specialist firm Juliett Alpha. Around 2 million passengers are potentially affected by the incident. Pete Buttigieg tweeted that he called for an investigation.to determine the causes (of the failure) and recommend next steps“. The chair of the US Senate Committee on Transportation, Maria Cantwell, also warned that a committee would examine the causes of the disruptions. “The public needs a resilient air transport system“, she said in a press release.
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