New York, Europe Brief News – More than 3,700 flights across the United States were grounded early Wednesday, due to an issue with a system that alerts pilots to potential hazards on flight routes.
The agency said early Wednesday it was “beginning to come back on line.”
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is working to solve the technical glitch, and ascertain what caused it.
Some functions have begun coming back online, according to the FAA, but not enough to get airplanes back in the sky.
American Airlines, a major US carrier, said the outage was impacting “all flights including all carriers”.
Airports around the US have confirmed flights will be delayed until the FAA provides further updates – as have some around the world
Several flights due to fly from Madrid to the US were held on Wednesday morning, Reuters reports.
US Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says he has been in contact with the FAA, and that they are working to resolve the issue “swiftly and safely”.
The White House says President Biden has been briefed and that there is no evidence of a cyberattack.
“The President has been briefed by the Secretary of Transportation this morning on the FAA system outage,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted before 7:40 a.m. ET. “There is no evidence of a cyberattack at this point, but the President directed DOT [Department of Transportation] to conduct a full investigation into the causes. The FAA will provide regular updates.”
