The US airspace has reopened, and flights have been allowed to take off again after a nationwide ground stop was lifted. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed that the airspace was reopened at 8:15 pm Eastern time. However, he warned that flight movement would depend on resources and that it would take time to unwind the effects of the outage that occurred earlier in the day.
The outage, which caused a nationwide ground stop, was attributed to a failure of old legacy equipment, according to Duffy. He explained that the equipment that failed was not part of the new systems that have been recently rolled out. Duffy also stated that there was no evidence of a cyber attack, and that the administration was moving quickly to ensure passenger safety and help those who were stranded.
The incident occurred at 3:36 pm local time, when instability was experienced in radar, communications, and centres across the country. The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop after inconsistent data from routers started registering. Duffy explained that the old air traffic control system was overwhelmed with data, leading to inconsistencies in the data received from routers.
The outage is expected to have a ripple effect, causing delays for several days. Duffy stated that the administration is looking at flights over the weekend to try to get things back on track. He also emphasized the need for $50 billion in funding from Congress to build a state-of-the-art air traffic system, which would help prevent such incidents in the future.
The transport secretary has assured that the public was never at risk, stating that "no one was ever at risk". He also emphasized that larger plane travel is being prioritized over smaller movements to try and get things back up and running as quickly as possible. Duffy expressed optimism that things would be back up and operational as the US enters the busy Thanksgiving travel period.
The Thanksgiving travel period, which begins in less than two weeks, is usually one of the busiest times of the year for air travel in the US. Duffy warned that it would take time to get back to capacity, but expressed hope that things would be back to normal soon. He also stated that the administration is working at an unprecedented pace to ensure passenger safety.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has quashed claims that the outage was related to the Microsoft outage that occurred yesterday. He emphasized that the administration is working quickly to ensure passenger safety and help those who were stranded.
Key points
- The US airspace has reopened, and flights have been allowed to take off again after a nationwide ground stop was lifted.
- The outage was attributed to a failure of old legacy equipment, and not a cyber attack.
- The incident is expected to have a ripple effect, causing delays for several days.
