The ban on flights in America has been lifted after airlines were halted for about four hours. In the press conference held at the White House, it was told that the ban on flights affecting millions of Americans has been lifted.
However, Transport Minister Sean Duffy told reporters that the flight ban was affecting other flights as well and the problems could continue for several days.
Duffy told reporters that it will take time for the system to be fully operational again, but the system will be operating at full capacity before the popular Thanksgiving travel holiday in the US.
Duffy and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin blamed the antiquated air traffic control system for the flight ban. He said that these systems have not been updated due to lack of adequate funding from Congress.
Mullin warned that incidents like today could happen again without a "complete overhaul" of the transportation system.
Earlier, due to a problem in the communication system of air traffic control in America, flights were stopped across the country.
The former head of the National Transportation Security Board in the US said that there has never been such a widespread suspension of flights in the US since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
US President Donald Trump told Fox News that it does not appear that this problem was caused by any cyber attack or AI.
Speaking to the BBC's US media partner CBS News, Robert L. “It's shocking that this could happen in this day and age,” Sumwalt said.
America's Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said that there is no indication of any attack on America behind this incident and everyone is safe.
Meanwhile, Air Canada has said that all flights between Canada and America have been canceled till Friday evening.
After a glitch in the air traffic control communication system in America, Air India also issued an advisory for its passengers.
The airline told Ex Post that this is affecting flights departing from different airports in America.
According to Air India, due to this, its flights to and from America may also be affected.
The airline has advised passengers to check the current status of their flight before leaving for the airport.
Air India has said that its teams are continuously monitoring the situation and will update passengers as soon as further information is received.
Meanwhile, at the White House, Markwayne Mullin repeatedly reassured people that this was not 'another 9/11' incident.
Earlier, American aviation officials had ordered to stop all flights citing security reasons. He described it as 'extraordinary circumstances'.
At a White House press briefing, Markway Mullin rejected claims that the outage was related to the Microsoft outage that many people had faced a day earlier.
Mullin said authorities are working with unprecedented speed to ensure everyone is safe and to help stranded passengers.
He further said that the general public was never in danger. In his words, "There was never any threat to anyone's life."
CBS report said that this problem occurred in the communication system due to network update.
Multiple sources have told CBS that the technical glitch that led to the nationwide grounding was caused by an update to the private communications network that connects America's air traffic control system.
According to CBS, L3Harris operates this network. After the update the network rebooted and then crashed.
On its website, L3Harris describes itself as a leading provider of communications systems for the world's most advanced airspace, weapons systems and command and control platforms.
L3Harris did not immediately respond to the BBC's request for comment.
Meanwhile, BBC correspondent Simon Atkinson from Australia said that the country's largest international airport in Sydney has said that all flights related to America have been stopped for the time being.
According to Jack Horton of BBC Verify, the ban on flights in America is being compared to previous incidents.
In a press conference regarding the nationwide ground stop in America, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin repeatedly said that this incident is not like 9/11.
BBC Verify spoke to Dr Guy Gratton, Associate Professor of Aviation and Environment at Cranfield University.
"This appears to be the most serious incident since 9/11, but clearly not at that level," he said.
When asked about similar incidents, Dr. Gratton mentioned the incident that took place in America in the year 2023, when flights had to be stopped due to a malfunction in the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system.
He said, "That situation lasted for 1 hour 52 minutes. During this time, about 9,500 flights were delayed and about 1,300 flights had to be cancelled."
