FAA Halts Flights Due To System Outage

The Federal Aviation Administration has halted all flight departures in the U.S. due to a computer system outage:

The Federal Aviation Administration halted all domestic flight departures across the United States Wednesday after the system providing pilots with pre-flight safety notices went offline.

The FAA said in a statement it had ordered airlines to stand flights down until at least 9 a.m. Eastern Time while it tried to restore its NOTAMS -- or Notice to Air Missions -- system.

 

"We are performing final validation checks and repopulating the system now," an earlier FAA statement said. "Operations across the National Airspace System are affected. We will provide frequent updates as we make progress."  [snip]

 

The NOTAMS system that is experiencing the outage provides "critical flight safety operation information," the airline said.

 

US President Joe Biden has ordered a Department of Transportation (DOT) investigation into the outage after being briefed on the situation, 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," she tweeted.

 

US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tweeted: " I have been in touch with FAA this morning about an outage affecting a key system for providing safety information to pilots. FAA is working to resolve this issue swiftly and safely so that air traffic can resume normal operations, and will continue to provide updates."

Hope you and yours had no air travel plans today. 

This, and the Biden classified documents flap, will have House Republicans salivating in their bad faith pursuit of endless "investigations."  In this case, they get to try to rough- up Democratic star Secretary Buttigieg.

(Screenshot: MSNBC)