The United States (US) government grounded “all flights in the country” as a result of a system failure on Wednesday.
Passengers were reportedly stranded at airports around the world after scheduled departures were abruptly canceled.
In a statement, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed the flaw in its Notice-To-Air Missions (NOTAM) system.
The agency is in charge of regulating all aviation aspects and protocols for all flights entering and leaving the United States.
They are performing final validation checks and reloading the system, according to the message.
“The FAA is working to restore its notice to air missions system. We are performing final validation checks and reloading the system now,” the statement reads.
“Operations across the national airspace system are affected.”
Meanwhile, a NOTAM is a notice that contains information that is critical to flight operations personnel but is not known far enough in advance to be publicized through other means, according to the FAA.
NOTAMs, according to the document, indicate the real-time and abnormal status of the National Airspace System (NAS) that affects all users, as well as the establishment, condition, or change of any facility, service, procedure, or hazard in the NAS.
Following the failure of the system, the FAA ordered airlines to suspend operations until the issue was resolved.
“The 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,” it said in a tweet.
Cleared Update No. 2 for all stakeholders: ⁰⁰The FAA is still working to fully restore the Notice to Air Missions system following an outage. ⁰⁰While some functions are beginning to come back on line, National Airspace System operations remain limited.
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023
FAA tweeted, “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. We will provide frequent updates as we make progress.”
In a second notice, FAA said, “The FAA is still working to fully restore the Notice to Air Missions system following an outage. While some functions are beginning to come back on line, National Airspace System operations remain limited.”
It went on to say, “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 is making progress in restoring its Notice to Air Missions system following an overnight outage. Departures are resuming at
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
On Wednesday at 1:44 p.m., FlightAware, a flight tracking website, reported that 1,230 flights (out of 7,076) were delayed within, into, or out of the United States.
An additional 111 flights were also canceled within, into, or out of the United States.
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