The FAA grounded flights across the US amid a nationwide system failure.Flights were reportedly grounded until 9 AM.
Another success story for Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
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FOX 29 reported:
The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday reported a system failure nationwide, temporarily grounding all domestic flight departures as it works to resolve the issue.
A statement from the FAA noted an issue with NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions), a system that sends out critical information to pilots and other flight operations personnel about potential hazards along a route. The alerts span from mundane information about construction at airports to urgent flight restrictions or broken equipment.
All aircraft are required to route through the system, including commercial and military flights.
As a result of the issue, the FAA said it ordered all 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.”
This is very alarming. The same event happened in the Philippines on New Year’s Day when all international flights were rerouted when the country’s airspace collapsed owing to technical issues.
Reuters reported:
Philippine authorities halted flights in and out of Manila on New Year’s Day due to a malfunction of air traffic control, which also prevented airlines bound to other destinations from using the country’s airspace.
A total of 282 flights were either delayed, cancelled or diverted to other regional airports, affecting around 56,000 passengers at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), the airport operator said on Sunday.
It was unclear how many overflights were affected.
Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista apologized for the inconvenience to passengers as he blamed a power outage for the breakdown of the central air traffic control system that also affected operations at other airports in the country.
He said the outdated existing facility should be upgraded immediately and that a back-up system was also needed.
“This is air traffic management system issue,” he said in a media briefing. “If you will compare us with Singapore, for one, there is a big difference, they are at least 10 years ahead of us.”