The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday reported a system failure nationwide, temporarily grounding all domestic flight departures as it works to resolve the issue.
A statement from the FAA noted an issue with NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions), a system that sends out critical information to pilots and other flight operations personnel about potential hazards along a route. The alerts span from mundane information about construction at airports to urgent flight restrictions or broken equipment.
All aircraft are required to route through the system, including commercial and military flights.
As a result of the issue, the FAA said it ordered all 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.”
About 1,230 flights within, into, and out of the U.S. were delayed as of about 7:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. Around 111 flights were listed as canceled.
Passengers are seen in Romulus, Michigan, United States on December 29, 2022. (Photo by Adam J. Dewey/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
In an earlier update, the FAA said some functions were beginning to come back online, while “National Airspace System operations remain limited.”
United Airlines told FOX Television Stations in its own statement that it had “temporarily delayed all domestic flights and will issue an update when we learn more from the FAA.”
Throughout the early morning hours, many passengers on Twitter began reporting that their flights had been grounded as officials worked to resolve the issue.
“Anyone else stranded? Our @united (pilot) says there is a nation wide outage of FAA @FAANews computer systems,” one Twitter user wrote.
“@AmericanAir informed us that all flights flying to the USA are grounded until the FAA system is fixed,” another questioned. “@FAANews, any updates? Currently in Paris, Thanks.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.