(Fox Business) The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is suffering a nationwide technical outage and order airlines to pause all domestic departures until 9 a.m. ET Wednesday morning.
The outage comes as a result of the failure of the FAA’s NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) system, which alerts pilots and other personnel about airborne issues and other delays at airports across the country.
“The NOTAM outage continued with no current estimated time of restoration,” the FAA website stated Wednesday morning.
“The FAA is working to restore its Notice to Air Missions System. We are performing final validation checks and repopulating the system now,” the FAA said in a statement.
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.
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023
Delta Air Lines passenger jets rest on the tarmac at Boston Logan International Airport, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File / AP Newsroom)
“While some functions are beginning to come back online, National Airspace System operations remain limited,” the statement continued.
Most airlines had already chosen to ground their own craft due to the system’s failure early Wednesday. The failure has so far resulted in some 400 canceled flights across the U.S., according to FlightAware. The tracker also showed that more than 1,150 flights within, into or out of the U.S. were delayed.
United Airlines announced its decision to ground all of its aircraft until 10 a.m. ET due to the outage.
I have been in touch with FAA this morning about an outage affecting a key system for providing safety information to pilots. FAA is working to resolve this issue swiftly and safely so that air traffic can resume normal operations, and will continue to provide updates.
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) January 11, 2023
