- The FAA temporarily grounded all domestic departures Wednesday morning until 9 a.m. ET.
- Travelers took to social media to share their experiences during the estimated 5,000 delays.
A Federal Aviation Administration system outage left thousands of travelers stranded in US airports and on planes Wednesday morning, prompting passengers to find creative ways to wait out delays or else give up altogether.
A technical problem involving the FAA's Notice to Air Missions system (NOTAM) temporarily grounded all domestic departures until 9 a.m. ET on Wednesday morning. The FAA has since restored the safety system that was affected by the outage, according to a tweet from US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
While some passengers called it quits and went back home, others were left to kill time amid an estimated 5,000 delays, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.
One group of strangers bonded in an Indiana airport over card games during the wait for their flights to be rescheduled, according to a tweet from an an affected traveler.
"In true Indiana fashion, a card game has broken out amongst stranded passengers that are strangers at the Indy airport." the tweet read.
Not long after, they were snapping selfies to capture the memory of the rare nationwide travel meltdown that brought them together.
—ℍ ℂ (@95hannahlouise) January 11, 2023
Travelers who were leaving home to fly elsewhere seemed less desperate about the significant delays. Due to the earliness of the outage, some took it as an opportunity to go home and get some extra hours of sleep before attempting to travel again.
—dj patil (@dpatil) January 11, 2023
One New York City couple told Nancy Wartik of the New York Times that they'd come to La Guardia Airport despite learning about their delayed flight to Florida while still at home.
"We're not in a rush. We don't have a connection to make," 52-year-old Nancy Meagher said, adding she saw the delay as a protective measure.