U.S. Flights Grounded Due to Major FAA Computer Outage

Airplanes are the safest way to travel across the world and the U.S. airspace. But in order to stay this way, all the systems have to work flawlessly. Most of the time, these systems are doubled by other safety measures that help airplanes reach their destination in the safest possible way. This time, though, one of the most important systems failed. It's crucial and cannot be safely doubled by anything else, at least not for the heavy air traffic over the U.S.

This key system is known as NOTAMS, or Notice to Air Missions. It helps ground control to communicate with pilots while flying. Thanks to it, there is harmony in take-off and landing as well as coordinating flights all over the U.S.-controlled air space. Through it, pilot find out if there is an available landing slot or not or if a guidance system on their way to the next airport is working properly or not.

Meanwhile, the FAA is struggling to find a solution. At the time of the press, they announced that they have already started to work on it and repopulate the system. But these things are very time-consuming and cannot be rushed by any means. That's why there are tens of thousands of delays, and the situation might get worse before will get better. Moreover, after the system will be completely back online and provide the necessary information, the whole timetable will be turned upside down due to the previous delays. Therefore, it is safe to say that some flights might even be canceled today since the airplanes cannot reach their next departure airport in time to prepare for the next take-off.

Another big problem is with the aircraft that are coming from abroad and need to land at U.S. airports. While some might be rerouted to Canada, others will have to land. Fortunately, thanks to radars and other radio altimeters, these planes can still land as long as there is no heavy traffic in the sky.

From take-off to landing, airplanes rely on various systems. Besides the GPS-guided routes, pilots need to know about cloud formations long before they'll meet them to either change altitude or their course. If, at the same time, there are other airplanes in the area that are trying to do the same, and they don't know about each other, that may lead to serious problems.

In addition, when approaching an airport, pilots need to know on which runway and when they can land. There is a specific timing between aircraft, known as a slot, that cannot be reduced. Also, an aircraft cannot stay too much in the air until it can land. So it's not like they can park them in the sky and wait for an empty slot.

Considering that a Boeing 737 lands at about 145 knots (167 mph or 269 kph), there is little room for error. Different aircraft have to land at a higher or slower speed, so there might be a chance that one can catch up with the one in front of it, leading to a disaster. To avoid that, the NOTAMS system is crucial. Still, FAA announced that aircraft in the air should rely on other safety systems, which will work better if fewer airplanes are in the U.S.-controlled air space.

Meanwhile, the Department of Transportation (DOT) started an investigation into the matter. According to White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, "there is no evidence of a cyberattack at this point, but the President directed DOT to conduct a full investigation into the causes." As expected, there might be many reasons why this is happening, and a cyberattack cannot be dismissed by default.

This problem came after other issues happened in the previous weeks when a winter storm hit and caused massive disruptions at the end of 2022, during the end-of-the-year holidays.

The system was slowly getting back online later on, and FAA announced that it resumed operations in the Atlanta and Newark airports "due to air traffic congestion in those areas. We expect departures to resume at other airports at 9 a.m. ET."

More than 32,500 flights were affected by the NOTAMS outage, and everything will get back to normal, but don't expect miracles. Fortunately, no accidents were reported, so the aircraft still remained the safest way to travel. Still, if you have other ways of transportation, you might go out and find a car to rent before they go out of stock.

And don't rush to a supercar dealer since the chip shortage left them out of cars as well long before this outage happened, and car sellers are adding huge markups over the MSRPs.