Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/ WASHINGTON: US aviation authorities have launched a probe to figure out what caused the outage of a crucial alert system, forcing temporary halt on all US domestic takeoffs, triggering hundreds and thousands of delays and cancellations.
US aviation
According to the AFP, USA Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that normal operations were being restored but the early morning halt created knock-on effects that the snarled travel throughout a day.
The grounding order has issued after the FAA identified a problem with the Notice to Air Missions system (NOTAM), which provides data to pilots about hazards, and changes to airport facilities that can affect flights.
“Our preliminary work traced the outage to a damaged database file,” FAA said that in a tweet Wednesday evening, adding that “at this time, there is no evidence of the cyberattack.”
A temporary outage spelled yet another hellish day for travellers less than a month after a bad winter season roiled the system.
Vince Hamilton said that “I just learned that my flight was delayed again,” who was at Reagan National Airport near Washington in the US seeking to travel to Chicago, then on to St. Louis, where he said that “I have to catch a bus that I’m probably going to miss.”
Aviation experts said that Wednesday’s nationwide order was believed to be the first time since the 9/11 attacks that such a broad command had been issued. The FAA did not respond to queries seeking confirmation.
According to the website Flight aware, near 8:00 pm eastern time Thursday, more than 1,300 air flights within, into or out of the United States has cancelled, with more than 9,800 suffering delays
The difficulties have sparked fresh criticism on Capitol Hill and throughout Washington of the FAA, which has had no confirmed administrator since March.
