SEATAC, Wash. — Air traffic operations are gradually resuming across the U.S. after a critical overnight system outage forced all domestic departures to pause until Wednesday morning.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a tweet just before 6 a.m. that the agency lifted its nationwide ground stop that caused a ripple effect of flight delays and cancellations across the country. The system outage was first reported at around 3 a.m.
As a result of the outage, there have been 2,371 flight cancellations and 13,450 delays nationwide, according to FlightAware, which tracks all flights and departures.
The impacts of the widespread delays and cancellations have not hit Seattle-Tacoma International Airport quite as hard as other major airports, however. There have been 11 flights canceled and 103 delays at Sea-Tac Airport as of 8 a.m. Wednesday. Flight Aware's "Misery Map," which tracks delays and cancellations across the country, put Sea-Tac Airport as the fifth-least affected airport by the FAA ground stop.
"I had no clue whatsoever that there were any delays at all this morning,” Steve Jones, a Sea-Tac passenger said.
Here are the five airports most impacted by the ground stop:
- Hartsfield - Jackson Atlanta International Airport (55 cancellations, 628 delays)
- O'Hare International Airport (75 cancellations, 445 delays)
- LaGuardia Airport (113 cancellations, 357 delays)
- Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (51 cancellations, 404 delays)
- Charlotte Douglas International Airport (113 cancellations, 318 delays)
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on Twitter that the system, which pilots check before flights to review potential hazards, is "fully restored," and that he has ordered a process to find the cause of the outage and recommend next steps.
Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Biden was briefed on the outage.
"There is no evidence of a cyberattack at this point, but the President directed DOT to conduct a full investigation into the causes," Jean Pierre said in a tweet. "The FAA will provide regular updates."
The FAA ordered the pause as it worked to restore its Notice to Air Missions (NOTAMs) system, which went offline Tuesday night. It said the grounding would let it "validate the integrity of flight and safety information."
The NOTAM system is designed to provide pilots and air traffic controllers with critical information before they take off, like runway hazards or adverse weather conditions. Flights in the sky during the outage were safe to land, the agency said.
“Now it’s the question of why," said Captain John Cox, who is a veteran pilot. "There are redundancies built into the system. What failed? Where was the single-point failure? Those are all going to be identified and steps taken to prevent a reoccurrence."
Cox says we will likely see delays until Thursday.
“The domino effect is going to be with us certainly all through the day today and probably well into tomorrow,” Cox said.