Due to the communication failure in air traffic control systems in the USA on Friday, November 13, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily suspended flights across the country. Thousands of flights were canceled or delayed due to the malfunction, and many passengers were stranded at airports. The flight ban was lifted after more than four hours of disruption.
Flights that were stopped across the country on Friday, November 13, due to a communication failure affecting air traffic control centers, resumed. According to Reuters, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted the flight ban lasting more than four hours.
US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced that the country's airspace was reopened at 20.15 local time on Friday, November 13. Stating that flights will start gradually, Duffy said that it will take time for airline companies to return to normal operations.
According to the data of the flight tracking platform Flightradar24, more than 4,700 flights were canceled and 10 thousand flights were delayed on Friday, November 13. It was reported that approximately 700 flights were canceled for Saturday, November 14.
THE REASON FOR THE FAILURE IS OLD INFRASTRUCTURE
US Secretary of Transportation Duffy stated that the communication failure was caused by network devices in the FAA's old infrastructure. Explaining that network switches and routers became disabled as the data load increased, Duffy stated that it has not yet been determined why the systems were overloaded.
According to the Associated Press (AP), US officials reported that new technologies added to the air traffic control system created an excessive load on the old infrastructure, causing interruptions in communication and radar connections.
US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced that there was no evidence that the malfunction was caused by a cyber attack.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM WAS ALSO EXAMINED
US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin stated that it will be investigated whether the malfunction is related to the new artificial intelligence-supported air traffic management system that has started to be used by the FAA. However, AirSpace Intel, the developer of the system, announced that the outage was not caused by their own technology.
FIRST SINCE 2023
A similar decision to stop flights across the country in the USA was last taken in January 2023. Domestic flights were suspended for approximately two hours due to a malfunction in the FAA's computer system. The decision on November 13 was the second comprehensive flight suspension decision implemented throughout the country since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
IT MAY TAKE DAYS FOR FLIGHTS TO RETURN TO NORMAL
It is stated that although the flight ban has been lifted, it may take a few days for airline companies to rearrange their flight schedules.
According to data from aviation data analysis company Cirium, there were approximately 11 thousand flights scheduled to depart from airports in the United States shortly after the flights were suspended. More than 1.5 million passengers were expected to travel on these flights.
Due to the disruption, hundreds of planes were diverted to different airports and passengers had to wait at airports and planes.
AIR TRAFFIC SYSTEM IS ON THE AGENDA AGAIN
The malfunction brought discussions about the aging air traffic control infrastructure of the USA back to the agenda.
According to the US Court of Accounts (GAO) report dated 2024, 51 of the 138 air traffic control systems evaluated by the FAA were considered unsustainable and 54 were among the systems at risk of becoming unsustainable.
The White House and the US Department of Transportation requested an additional $30.1 billion from Congress on Friday, November 13, for the renewal of airports and air traffic control infrastructure. It is anticipated that $10.1 billion of this amount will be allocated to the modernization of air traffic control systems.
