US flights resumed across the country on Wednesday after a nationwide ground stop ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration, which blamed an outage in an ageing pilot-notification system for the disruption. The agency halted all departures for roughly ninety minutes after its Notice to Air Missions system, which relays safety information to flight crews, failed overnight. More than 1,200 flights were delayed and over 100 cancelled, according to tracking service FlightAware, with knock-on delays expected to persist through the day. The FAA said it traced the failure to a damaged database file and ruled out a cyberattack, adding that it was working to restore full capacity while investigating the root cause.
The incident has renewed scrutiny of the ageing infrastructure underpinning US aviation, with lawmakers from both parties calling for modernisation funding and questioning why a backup system did not prevent the shutdown. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the disruption was unacceptable and ordered a review of the agency's contingency protocols. Aviation analysts noted that the NOTAM system, in service for decades, has long been flagged as vulnerable to failure. The White House said President Joe Biden had been briefed and that there was no evidence of external interference. Airlines warned that residual delays could affect schedules into the weekend as they reposition aircraft and crews.
Independent reporting synthesized from primary wires and global correspondents.