UPDATE: FAA Lifts US Domestic Flight Departure Groundstop
The FAA lifted its order for airlines to pause all domestic departures just before 9 a.m. Wednesday with the restoration of its Notice to Air Missions system.
"We continue to look into the cause of the initial problem" following the overnight outage, the FAA said in a tweet.
The order came after NAMS went offline around 6 a.m., causing delays for some departures. NAMS provides real-time information on flight hazards and information, although it is not the sole source of information for pilots.
The FAA was able to restore some systems around 7 a.m., but issued the order in order "to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information."
United had temporarily delayed all domestic flights ahead of the FAA's order while American was "closely monitoring the situation."
According to FlightAware.com, there are 2,056 delayed flights nationwide as of 9 a.m., and 723 canceled flights into and out of the United States. 79 departures were canceled out of Boston's Logan International Airport, according to FlightAware.com. The Manchester-Boston Regional Airport website showed only 2 cancellations.
Delays can be expected on most flights as the airlines recover from the morning ground stop.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said there is no evidence of a cyberattack.
President Joe Biden commented on the ground stop Wednesday morning as he left the White House.
"I just spoke with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. They don't know what the cause is. I told them to report directly to me when they find out. Aircraft can still land safely, just not take off right now. They don't know what the cause of it is, they expect in a couple of hours they'll have a good sense of what caused it and will respond at that time," Biden said.
The Associated Press reported that flights into the U.S. from Europe were seemingly unaffected.
Dan Alexander is a reporter for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at dan.alexander@townsquaremedia.com
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