Hundreds of flights across the United States have been affected after the Federal Aviation Administration or FAA suffered a catastrophic system error sparking travel chaos for thousands of passengers, international media reported.
News agency Reuters reported that the US Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) system that alerts pilots and other flight personnel about hazards or any changes to airport facility services and relevant procedures was not processing updated information, adding that the civil aviation regulator’s website showed on Wednesday.
In an advisory, the FAA said its NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) system had “failed”. There was no immediate estimate for when it would be back, the website showed, though NOTAMs issued before the outage were still viewable.
A total of 1,230 flights were delayed within, into or out of the United States as of 7.19 am ET (1219 GMT), flight tracking website FlightAware showed, without citing reasons. Another 103 within, into or out of the country were also cancelled.
The agency said in a tweet that it was working on restoring its Notice to Air Missions System.
“We are performing final validation checks and reloading the system now,” the FAA said. “Operations across the National Airspace System are affected.”
The FAA is working to restore what is known as the Notice to Air Missions System.
What is NOTAM?
NOTAMs used to be available through a hotline but that was phased out with the internet. The alerts span from mundane information about construction at airports to urgent flight restrictions or broken equipment.
A NOTAM is a notice containing information essential to personnel concerned with flight operations, but not known far enough in advance to be publicised by other means.
Information 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.
The agency said that it would provide frequent updates as it made progress.
NBC News citing a source reported that all flights in the US were grounded following the incident.