Hundreds of flights delayed across US after FAA technical failure

"The FAA is attempting to fix its Notice to Air Missions System. We are currently doing the system's last validation checks and reloading it. Operations across the National Airspace System are impacted," said FAA.

Hundreds of flights were grounded across the United States on Wednesday morning, January 11, 2023, due to a technical failure in the Federal Aviation Administration's system (FAA). 

The FAA has directed airlines to delay all domestic departures until 9:00 am. Eastern Time to allow the agency to confirm the integrity of flight and safety data. Flights had already been grounded, the airlines added. 

"The FAA is attempting to restore its Notice to Air Missions System. We are currently doing the system's last validation checks and reloading it. Operations across the National Airspace System are impacted," said FAA.

US President Joe Biden has been briefed on the FAA system failure by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. 

In her tweet, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, "There is no proof of a cyberattack at this time, but the President has asked DOT to conduct a thorough inquiry into the causes. The FAA will provide regular updates."

The outage is the consequence of the failure of the Notice to Air Missions system, which warns pilots and other workers about airborne issues and other delays at airports around the country.

According to FlightAware, a flight tracking website, over 1,200 flights within,  into or out of the United States were delayed, and over 100 were cancelled on Wednesday morning.

Transportation Secretary Buttigieg said he is in contact with the FAA and is monitoring the situation.

Buttigieg tweeted, "I contacted the FAA this morning about an outage affecting an important system for giving safety information to pilots. The FAA is working to resolve this issue so that aviation traffic may resume regular operations, and will continue to provide updates."

The FAA is still working to restore the Notice to Air Missions system fully. 

In its latest situation update, the FFA said, "While some functions are gradually resuming, National Airspace System operations remain restricted."

(With inputs from PTI)