- The FAA experienced a technical outage, leading to flight delays and cancellations.
- Airlines had been ordered to pause domestic flights as a result.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has suffered an outage, leading to delays and cancellations.
The FAA told Insider in a statement on Wednesday morning: "The FAA is working to restore its Notice to Air Missions System. We are performing final validation checks and repopulating the system now. Operations across the National Airspace System are affected."
The FAA had ordered airlines to temporarily ground all domestic departures until 9 a.m. ET "to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information." Later in the morning, the FAA lifted the ground stop, allowing domestic flights in the US to resume.
It said in an updated statement at 8:50 a.m. ET: "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," adding that the ground stop has been lifted. "We continue to look into the cause of the initial problem."
According to Massport, the agency that runs Logan Airport in Boston, some flights have been grounded across the US, CBS News reported.
United Airlines passenger, Peggy Dodson, told Insider she was due to fly from Las Vegas to Newark late on Tuesday night. She said passengers boarded the plane, which taxied out and stood for 15 minutes before the pilot took them to another area to wait for two hours before returning them to the gate.
"Only one person was working. People are angry and upset. Some missed flights out of the country," Dodson said.
She added: "I am in the media and was here for CES. I am now having to reschedule interviews. This is very unpleasant and unprofessional of United and people are still waiting in line. It's 3 a.m. here."
When news of the outage broke earlier in the morning, United Airlines said in a statement shared on social media: "The FAA system that sends out important real-time flight hazards and restrictions to all commercial airline pilots — Notice to Air Mission (NOTAM) — is currently suffering a nationwide outage. United has temporarily delayed all domestic flights and will issue an update when we learn more from the FAA."
January 11, 2023. This story has been updated to reflect the FAA's announcement at 8:50 a.m. ET that it had lifted the ground stop, allowing domestic flights to resume.