The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) expanded the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to all air control centers in the country days before the total shutdown in American aviation.
According to information published by the American newspaper The Washington Times, the new AI tool was implemented in the country's 22 centers on Tuesday, November 10th.
Smart, an acronym in English to define Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories, integrates approximately 200 streams of aerial data, such as flight routes, schedules, weather conditions, airport capacity and controller staff.
According to the FAA, the tool's function is to change the approach to air traffic management from reactive to predictive and present all information in a single space.
The proposal is that it will be possible for controllers to anticipate demand, weather conditions and airspace restrictions hours, days or weeks in advance.
Map of planes in US airspace — Photo: Reproduction/Flightradar24
So far, according to the newspaper, the FAA and President Donald Trump's government have not associated the SMART system with the communication failure that caused the total shutdown of American airports this Friday (13).
Supplier responsible for the tool, Air Space Intelligence (ASI) stated that the current suspension of operations "is not based on the SMART system — nor is it a result of it —, any ASI product or our integration with the FAA and ATC."
According to the newspaper, the agency reported since September 21, with the partial launch of the tool, that 180 flights had their routes changed, resulting in an average saving of around 10 minutes and almost 80 gallons of fuel per flight.
SMART was initially used in Washington airspace and has a 12-year contract worth US$875 million (almost R$5 billion), signed in June, which also covers a data platform.
Airports stopped
The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered this Friday (13) the suspension of all takeoffs in the country following a communication problem affecting air traffic control centers.
The American press stated that there is no evidence of a cyber attack. TV Globo learned from a source who works in a control tower at a New York airport that the problem is related to a crossing of radio frequencies.
US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the suspension was due to a "telecommunications issue" and ruled out a possible attack.
"So far, there is no sign that this is an attack against us. It is, for now, just a failure in telecommunications. This will take some time to resolve," he said.
The FAA said the suspension was determined by extraordinary circumstances and safety reasons. With the measure, aircraft that are on the ground cannot take off. International flights are being analyzed on a case-by-case basis.
According to data from the monitoring website FlightAware, almost 7,000 flights in the US were delayed or canceled.
United States Secretary of Transport, Sean Duffy, stated that the failure affects all control centers responsible for traffic on the country's air routes. FAA technicians are investigating the problem, he said.
Previous strike
This is the second time that the FAA has ordered a nationwide suspension of all takeoffs since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
The other occurred on January 11, 2023, when a failure in the agency's aeronautical information system caused a stoppage of less than two hours. At the time, more than 1,300 flights were canceled and almost 10,000 were delayed throughout the day.
