All US Domestic Flights Grounded Due to Computer Glitch

Every domestic flight across the US was grounded on Wednesday due to a computer system glitch. An estimated 2,512 flights were delayed according to flight tracking websites.

The computer glitch affected the Notice to Air Missions system, which alerts pilots of potential hazards along a flight route. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has grounded flights across the US to ensure the safety of passengers.

Outbound flights were scheduled to resume at 9:00 Eastern Time at the earliest. In the meantime, the FAA assured passengers that it was working to restore the Notice to Air Missions System as soon as possible.

US domestic flights grounded

Flights across the country were grounded due to a computer glitch. According to Flight Aware, a flight tracking website, 2,512 delays occurred within, into, or out of the US today, together with 272 cancellations.

US President Joe Biden was reportedly briefed on the problem plaguing the aviation industry. His press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said that “the president directed [the US Department of Transport] to conduct a full investigation into the causes.”

Jean-Pierre also commented that a cyberattack is not expected to be the cause of the computer system glitch.

“The FAA is working to restore its Notice to Air Missions System. We are performing final validation checks and reloading the system now,” the flight agency said on Twitter. “Operations across the National Airspace System are affected.”

According to an update by the agency on Twitter, “The FAA is still working to fully restore the Notice to Air Missions system following an outage.”

“The 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 flight agency also said.

The FAA stated that validation checks and a system reboot had to be performed to fix the computer system. Flights across the US were grounded until the issue was resolved.

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

Some flights resume

Ahead of the full resumption of flights scheduled for 9:00 Eastern Time, a select number of flights were allowed to take off.

According to the FAA, some flights were allowed to commence at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and Atlanta Airport in Georgia. They were reportedly allowed to take off due to air traffic congestion.

“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,” the FAA has said in a recent update on Twitter.

The FAA added that its technicians are continuing to “look into the cause of the initial problem.”

Update 5: Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually across the U.S. 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

— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023

Full resumption of flights

The FAA was able to lift its order to ground all domestic flights across the US late on Wednesday morning.

Some delays were still occurring past the scheduled resumption of flights at 9:00 Eastern Time. Delays continued at New York’s LaGuardia Airport and Charlotte Douglas International Airport until at least 10:05 am.

It has not yet been revealed what caused the glitch in the Notice to Air Missions system. The system is a vital safety implement because it alerts pilots and other aerospace staff to anomalies in the National Airspace System.