Over 1200 flights delayed across United States due to FAA system outage

Meanwhile, the White House has ruled out a cyber attack in the FAA system outage. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, however, said President Joe Biden has ordered an investigation. Biden, speaking to reporters at the White House, said, “Aircraft can still land safely but not take off right now.”

While United Airlines said it has temporarily delayed all domestic flights, Lufthansa and Air France both said they were continuing to operate flights to and from the United States.

Amid delays at airports across the country due to “ground stops”, the FAA said it was working to restore the system that alerts pilots of hazards and changes to airport facilities and procedures that had stopped processing updated information. A ground stop is a measure deployed to slow or halt aircraft at airports to control air traffic.

“The FAA is still working to fully restore the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system following an outage. While some functions are beginning to come back on line, National Airspace System operations remain limited,” it said on Twitter.

A NOTAM contains information essential to personnel concerned with flight operations. Information can go up to 200 pages for long-haul flights and may include items such as runway closures and bird hazard warnings.

The FAA said that it would provide frequent updates as it made progress.

A total of 21,464 flights are scheduled to depart airports in the United States on Wednesday carrying nearly 2.9 million passengers, according to data from Cirium.

With inputs from Reuters