US : authorities halt air traffic nationwide after technical problemUS : authorities halt air traffic nationwide after technical problem

Flights resume in US after system failure

(Reuters) U.S. flights were slowly resuming on Wednesday after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) moved to fix an overnight system outage that impacted thousands of flights.

The FAA had previously ordered airlines to halt all domestic departures after its pilot alert system for air missions went down.

The FAA said departures were being resumed at Newark and Atlanta airports “due to air traffic congestion in those areas. We expect departures to resume at other airports by 9 a.m. (New York time).”

Flights already in the air were allowed to continue to their destinations.

US President Joe Biden was briefed on the FAA system outage, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Twitter. There is no evidence of a cyber attack at this time, but the president has called for an investigation, she said.

The FAA said it was working to restore a system that alerts pilots to hazards and changes in airport facilities and procedures that had stopped processing updated information.

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

A total of 32,578 flights were delayed as of 8:07 a.m. New York time, flight tracking website FlightAware showed, without citing reasons. Another 409 in, entering or leaving the country were also canceled.

U.S. airline stocks fell in pre-opening trading on Wednesday.

A Notam is a notice containing essential information to personnel involved with flight operations, but not known far enough in advance to be disseminated by other means.

The information can be up to 200 pages long for long-haul international flights and can include items such as runway closures, bird hazard warnings, and construction obstacles.

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