The United States Aviation Administration (FAA) asked to paralyze air traffic when it noticed that something was not going well
America’s airports are living a nightmare day. A computer failure has caused all its flights to remain on the ground for hours this morning. The United States Aviation Administration (FAA) asked to paralyze air traffic as soon as it detected the incident. It is estimated that there are more than 5,000 operations affected. 4,000 have been postponed and 700 cancelled, according to the latest data.
The problem affected its information systems for pilots and crew, this agency said in a statement. The operators have immediately set to work “to completely restore the information system” and have managed to get some functions “starting to be online again.” Although they have not been able to ‘raise’ all. The first planes have begun to take off at 3:00 p.m. Spanish time and it is expected that in a few hours the chaos will have been just a mirage.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said on Twitter that at the moment there were “no signs of a cyberattack.” However, the country’s president, Joe Biden, “asked the Department of Transportation to conduct a full investigation into the causes” of the incident, he said.
For his part, the Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, explained that he was following the work minute by minute. “I have been in contact with the FAA this morning. He is working to resolve the issue quickly and safely, and will continue to provide updates.”
Airport screens have quickly filled with notices of delays and cancellations. Many travelers have not been able to take their flights and others have arrived at the airfields without even knowing what was happening. The waiting rooms have been overcrowded with patient users. Several airfields, including those in Ottawa, Baltimore and Austin, have warned people not to come without checking the status of their flight.
What system is failing?
The company United Airlines, for its part, has confirmed in a statement that it had “temporarily delayed all domestic flights” due to the breakdown. “We are monitoring the situation closely and working with the FAA to minimize disruption to customers,” American Airlines has said in turn.
The system affected by the interruption, called Notice To Air Missions (Notam to Air Missions, NOTAM), is used to transmit information to crews about risks, developments at airports and other relevant data. The FAA said that the operation of the system was “impaired”, this means that the pilots did not receive information about closed airspaces, obstacles, etc.
#resumes #flights #computer #failure #affected #operations