Massive glitch grounds all flights across the U.S. as FAA races to resolve issue

A critical Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) system suffered an overnight glitch, grounding flights across the United States. early Wednesday morning, January 11.

Due to the major system outage, the FAA could not send out key hazard notices to commercial pilots through the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) System. The NOTAM System provides key real-time updates about potential flight hazards, as well as any airspace restrictions in place. However, this national flight awareness system operates separately from air traffic control platforms.

The FAA ordered all departing flights grounded early Wednesday, affecting all passenger and cargo flights. Some medical flights could get clearance, and the outage did not affect military operations.

The FAA posted an advisory notice early Wednesday announcing NOTAM System “failed” but said just before 9AM ET that “normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually.”

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.

— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023

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

— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023

The nationwide ground stop was lifted at 8:50 a.m., with flights across the United States resuming.

No cause has currently been given for the system glitch. The White House says that President Biden has been briefed on the situation and that “no evidence of a cyberattack” exists at this time.