The system, which provides pilots and ground staff with important safety information and notifications of disruptions in the flight process, was down, the FAA website said in the morning. The FAA’s NOTAM system (Notice to Air Missions) also informs airports about hazards and changes in the technical process. Technicians worked to fix the problem. The system will be restarted, the FAA said via Twitter.
How big the impact actually is, however, is not clear. Shortly after the FAA’s announcement, more than 3,500 flights within, to or from the United States were delayed and nearly 400 were canceled, according to Flightaware.com. According to the flight data portal Cirium, almost 21,500 flights in the USA with around 2.9 million passengers were planned for Wednesday.
Effects should be kept to a minimum
After a temporary ban on all US domestic flights, the first jets took off again at around 8:30 a.m. local time (2:30 p.m. CET) from the airports in Atlanta and Newark in the greater New York area, as the FAA announced via Twitter. The FAA is making progress in fixing a computer glitch.
The disruption at the FAA does not affect Lufthansa flights to and from the USA, as the airline told dpa at noon. The French airline Air France also continued to take off, but observed the situation. Apparently things are different in Spain. There, flights from Madrid to the United States are said to be delayed.
US President Joe Biden has meanwhile been informed by the responsible Ministry of Transport, according to the White House. The White House has no indication of a cyber attack, according to CNN. Biden himself later relativized this to journalists. You just don’t know yet. The reason for the failure is not yet clear. Biden says he is in contact with Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
Again and again disturbances
Disturbances of the IT systems in air traffic occur again and again – but not necessarily on this scale. A computer problem in the control system in April 2017 confused the Balearic airports of Ibiza, Menorca and Palma for several hours. Air traffic controllers had to take care of the incoming machines under difficult conditions.
In September 2016, an IT error at London’s Gatwick and Heathrow airports caused long waiting times for British Airways. Guests at other airports are also complaining about delays. Also in 2016, more than 1,700 flights worldwide were canceled due to a seven-hour power outage at Delta’s Atlanta headquarters.
In 2015, all domestic flights of the US line United Airlines were temporarily canceled due to problems with the network connection. The FAA imposed a take-off ban of about an hour and a half. A few weeks earlier, a computer glitch had kept United Jets grounded for an hour.
