
According to US media reports, all flights across the US have been grounded due to a glitch with the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) computer system.
The FAA said in a notice on its website that its Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system had "failed" on Wednesday (January 11) morning. A NOTAM is a notice containing information essential to workers involved in flight operations.
#BREAKING: FAA experiencing computer outage; all flights nationwide grounded -- per source with knowledge of the situation @nbcwashington
— Michael Pegram (@MichaelPNews) January 11, 2023
“Technicians are currently working to restore the system and there is no estimate for restoration of service at this time,” the FAA said to NBC News.
"Operations across the National Airspace System are affected," the FAA said.
Several people tweeted to say they had been stranded due to the outage.
Uh oh. The claim is the FAA @FAANews is now going to do a hard reset of their systems. Last time they had to do this I was when Oklahoma system flooded.
— dj patil (@dpatil) January 11, 2023
😱
Updates from FAA: The FAA said 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," tweetd the the Federal Aviation Administration of the US.
The FAA is working to restore its Notice to Air Missions System. We are performing final validation checks and reloading the system now.
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023
Operations across the National Airspace System are affected.
We will provide frequent updates as we make progress.
In another update, FAA tweeted that while some functions are beginning to come back on line, National Airspace System operations remains limited.
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
The FAA in another update said that it has ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures until 9 am Eastern Time to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information.
Update 3: The FAA is still working to fully restore the Notice to Air Missions system following an outage.⁰⁰The 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.
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023
The FAA has now tweeted that flights were gradually resuming across the US, while they continued to look into the problem.
"Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually across the US following an overnight outage to the Notice to Air Missions system that provides safety info to flight crews. The ground stop has been lifted. We continue to look into the cause of the initial problem," tweeted the FAA.
What is NOTAM used for? The alerts span from mundane information about construction at airports to urgent flight restrictions or broken equipment, reported the Associated Press. NOTAMs used to be available through a hotline but that was phased out with the internet.
All aircraft are required to route through the system, including commercial and military flights.