Chaos at American airports. Thousands of flights canceled due to system failure

On Friday and Saturday, American airports were plunged into chaos. All because of the failure of the outdated traffic control system, which - as US Transport Minister Sean Duffy admitted - could not withstand the overload during the update. As a result, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) banned aircraft takeoffs throughout the United States, and thousands of passengers were stranded at airports.

According to FlightAware data, over 15,000 flights were canceled or delayed on Friday. The situation is slowly improving, but there are still difficulties. As RMF FM's correspondent in the United States, Paweł Żuchowski, found out, over two and a half thousand flights have already been canceled on Saturday.

The FAA has revoked the previously imposed ban on aircraft takeoffs throughout the United States.

The president declares a state of emergency, Congress is under pressure

The scale of the problem caused US President Donald Trump to declare a state of emergency to accelerate the modernization of the system. He appealed to Congress to urgently increase funds for this purpose - as much as $50 billion is needed, while only $12.5 billion has been allocated so far.

Experts have no doubt: without thorough modernization, similar failures may recur. Air traffic control systems are in terrible technical condition and remain outdated, warns Mary Schiavo, a CNN transport analyst.

Experts warn

According to Peter Goelz, former director of the US National Transportation Safety Board, the chaos at airports may continue for several more days. Planes and crews are in the wrong places and staff have reached maximum working hours. Goelz warns that similar paralysis could happen again during Thanksgiving or Christmas if decisive action is not taken.