China News Service, November 14th. On the evening of the 13th local time, the FAA lifted the nationwide flight suspension order. But the chaos caused by the grounding order is not over. Foreign media pointed out that this failure exposed the dilemma of the US air traffic control system.
"Special circumstances and safety reasons"
The United States issues a nationwide grounding order
On the 13th local time, the FAA issued a nationwide directive to suspend flights due to "special circumstances and safety reasons." US media reported that there was a serious problem with the US air traffic control communication system.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said: "Due to communications issues affecting all air traffic control centers, the FAA has issued a suspension of flight departures at all U.S. airports while technicians investigate the issue."
This is the second time the United States has issued a nationwide flight suspension order since the "9.11" terrorist attacks in 2001. In January 2023, the FAA ordered all domestic flights to stop taking off for about two hours due to a computer system failure.
According to Fox News Channel, US President Trump said on the 13th that the failure of the US air traffic control system had nothing to do with cyber attacks or artificial intelligence, and was suspected to be caused by old and damaged infrastructure.
Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter, that the FBI believes that communications problems affecting U.S. air traffic control were not caused by cyberattacks or criminal acts. One direction of current investigation is whether the failure was caused by a software update.
Lasts more than 4 hours
U.S. flight grounding order lifted
After the grounding order lasted for more than 4 hours, on the evening of the 13th local time, the Federal Aviation Administration stated that it had lifted the grounding order on flights across the United States.
Duffy said at the White House that night that U.S. airspace had reopened at 20:15 Eastern Time, and flights would gradually resume. It would take some time for airlines to resume normal operations, and "the recovery process will be slow."
Regarding the cause of the failure, Duffy said that the air traffic control system currently in use is old and the system was overwhelmed by data overload, resulting in inconsistent data provision, so he chose to shut down the system.
Duffy also expressed hope that Congress will provide $50 billion in emergency funding for air traffic control system upgrades.
At a press conference, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Marin said there is currently no evidence that the incident was caused by a cyberattack and was not related to the outage of Microsoft software services that began the day before.
According to reports, the investigation is currently ongoing.
Chaos continues
Foreign media: Highlighting the dilemma of the US air traffic control system
Although the nationwide flight suspension order has been lifted, the impact on travelers is far from over. US media reported that the grounding order lasted for more than four hours, resulting in a large number of flight delays or cancellations, a large number of passengers stranded at the airport, and disrupted travel plans.
Reuters pointed out that from Boston to Seattle, from New York to Los Angeles, passengers at airports everywhere crowded departure halls and airline counters, and the number of flight delays and cancellations continued to increase. Many travelers may have to spend the night at the airport.
According to data from the flight tracking website FlightAware, about 15,000 flights in the United States were delayed or canceled on the 13th. On the 14th, more than 2,000 flights are expected to be delayed or canceled.
Analysts said the incident may cause airline flight schedules to continue to be affected in the coming days.
Reuters reported that the failure exposed the difficulties of the US air traffic control system. The U.S. air traffic control system has long been plagued by problems such as equipment failures and shortages of air traffic control personnel.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the incident raised many questions about the U.S. air traffic control system. Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives pointed out, "This incident has severely damaged the public's trust in the U.S. aviation system, which is a key component of the U.S. national economy."
