FAA Halts Domestic Flights Due to System Outage

If you planned to board a plane and take off on time this morning, chances are it did not happen. Flying can cause all kinds of anxiety for travelers, and when the FAA halts flights, that can certainly make the situation worse.

An important system that pilots need to communicate went offline early Wednesday morning.

Here is the timeline and updates about the outage from the FAA.

Federal Aviation Administration Updates

5:29 AM

The FAA is working to restore its Notice to Air Missions System. We are performing final validation checks and reloading the system now. Operations across the National Airspace System are affected. We will provide frequent updates as we make progress.

5:57 AM

Cleared Update No. 2 for all stakeholders: The FAA is still working to fully restore the Notice to Air Missions system following an outage. While some functions are beginning to come back on line, National Airspace System operations remain limited.

6:19 AM

Update 3: The FAA is still working to fully restore the Notice to Air Missions system following an outage. The FAA has ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures until 9 a.m. Eastern Time to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information.

7:13 AM

All flights currently in the sky are safe to land. Pilots check the NOTAM system before they fly. A Notice to Air Missions alerts pilots about closed runways, equipment outages, and other potential hazards along a flight route or at a location that could affect the flight.

7:50 AM

Update 5: Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually across the U.S. following an overnight outage to the Notice to Air Missions system that provides safety info to flight crews. The ground stop has been lifted. We continue to look into the cause of the initial problem

FlightAware.com