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Explained: Why US flights were grounded by FAA?
According to real-time flight tracker FlightAware, around 6:30am Eastern time zone, about 760 flights were put on hold and by 7am, the number of flight delays went up to 1,200.
A system failure of a crucial computer software caused delays in more than 1,200 flights within, into or out of the United States of America early Wednesday morning. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) alerted officials of a glitch in the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system due to a computer outage. According to real-time flight tracker FlightAware, around 6:30am Eastern time zone, about 760 flights were put on hold and by 7am, the number of flight delays went up to 1,200.
What is NOTAM?
According to the FAA website, a Notice to Air Missions, or NOTAM, contains information “essential to personnel concerned with flight operations, but not known far enough in advance to be publicized by other means”.
It is an important system of notices that sends real-time alerts and abnormal status of the National Airspace System (NAS) to pilots about hazards and changes to airport facilities and procedures that had stopped processing updated information. The alerts span from mundane information about construction at airports to urgent flight restrictions or broken equipment.
However, without it, aircraft risk running into flocks of birds or being unaware of slippery conditions on runways.
Why the flights were ‘grounded’?
Multiple US media reports said that all flights across the US were “grounded” after the system failure alert by the FAA – which said it was working to restore a system. A NOTAM contains information essential to personnel concerned with flight operations, but not known far enough in advance to be publicized by other means. These can go up to 200 pages for long-haul international flights and may include items such as runway closures, general bird hazard warnings, or low-altitude construction obstacles.
However, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, in a tweet, said that “there is no evidence of a cyberattack at this point.”
More than 21,000 flights were scheduled to take off in the US today, according the the Associated Press, mostly domestic trips. As many as1,840 international flights were expected to fly to the US, according to aviation data firm Cirium.
