Aircraft across the U.S. temporarily halted takeoffs, likely due to communication failure, but canceled after several hours

[New York, Washington Current Affairs] On the afternoon of the 13th, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a temporary suspension of aircraft takeoffs for all airports in the United States. The measures continued for more than four hours starting after 3:30 p.m., but were lifted at 8:15 p.m. The FAA is investigating the cause of the crash, due to a communications failure at the air traffic control facility. This is the second time that takeoffs have been suspended across the United States, after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

During the suspension, aircraft in flight were able to land, but aircraft on the ground were unable to take off. According to flight tracking site FlightAware, more than 15,000 flights were affected by delays or cancellations. Even after the ban was lifted, confusion continued at airports across the country. Tens of thousands of travelers are feared to be stranded and forced to spend the night at airports.

"The analog communications system was overloaded with so much data that we shut it down," Transportation Secretary Duffy said at a press conference. Secretary of Homeland Security Marin also pointed out, ``As far as we can confirm, there have been no cyberattacks.''

Immediately after the suspension was announced, Japan Airlines announced on its website that ``some international flights are affected.'' All Nippon Airways also announced, ``There is a possibility of delays and cancellations, mainly for flights to and from the United States.''

On the 13th, Microsoft, which experienced a large-scale system failure in its business software group, posted on its social networking site X, ``There are no signs that the problem is related to our services.''