US resumes flights after failure in air traffic control causes chaos at airports

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorized the resumption of operations at 8:15 pm East Coast time (10:15 pm in Brasília).

Despite the release, Transport Secretary Sean Duffy warned that the recovery will be gradual and that airlines will need time to reorganize their flights.

"It's going to be slow," said Duffy, during an interview with journalists at the White House.

As of 11:30 pm local time, almost 10,000 flights had been cancelled, according to monitoring website Flightradar24. Among the most affected companies were Delta Air Lines and American Airlines, with more than 2,200 cancellations each, in addition to United Airlines, with 1,800.

At some of the main American airports, passengers waited more than five hours to disembark.

Experts in the airline sector estimate that the effects of the strike could last for several days, even after operations resume.

What caused the strike?

Passengers walk at Logan International Airport after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a nationwide shutdown of takeoffs "due to extraordinary circumstances and for safety reasons", following an earlier agency report of serious air traffic control communications problems in East Boston, Massachusetts, US. — Photo: Brian Snyder/Reuters

According to the Secretary of Transport, the problems began at 3:36 pm, when the air traffic control centers began to register failures in the radar and communication systems.

Duffy explained that the equipment responsible for transmitting and organizing information between control centers was overloaded.

In practice, the systems began to present inconsistent data, which made the work of the controllers responsible for guiding the planes more difficult.

Given the situation, authorities decided to temporarily suspend all takeoffs as a safety measure.

The secretary emphasized, however, that the controllers did not completely lose access to the radars or communication with the pilots. This allowed thousands of aircraft to land safely during the shutdown.

The immediate problem has already been corrected, according to the American government, which considers it safe to resume operations.

Government charges US$50 billion to modernize the air system

The failure reignited concerns about the United States' air traffic control infrastructure, which is facing problems related to aging equipment, communication difficulties and a lack of thousands of professionals.

Duffy blamed the lack of investment for the situation and asked Congress to release US$50 billion to modernize the system.

According to him, updating equipment and communication networks is necessary to avoid further shutdowns.

Even before Friday's failure, the White House and the Department of Transportation had already asked Congress for $30.1 billion to improve airports and air control infrastructure.

"We have an incredibly old air traffic control system. Give us the money to fix it," the secretary said.

Government investigates causes and does not rule out cyber attack

The Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, stated that, so far, there is no evidence that the failure was caused by a cyber attack or by an artificial intelligence system.

Both possibilities, however, have not yet been completely ruled out.

According to Mullin, the first signs point to a technical problem with the equipment. The United States National Security Agency (NSA) is participating in the investigation in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security.

According to two airline representatives interviewed by Reuters, the failure appears to have affected a telecommunications network managed by the company L3Harris Technologies.

This network is responsible for radio frequencies essential for communication between pilots and flight controllers.

The company did not respond to the agency's request for comment.

Passengers still face delays and cancellations

Even with the resumption of flights, tens of thousands of passengers remained stranded at American airports.

From Boston to Seattle and New York to Los Angeles, terminals were packed, with long lines at airline counters and grounded planes. Many passengers had to spend the night at airports.

This was the case of Edward Kargbo, 50 years old, who had a trip scheduled for 9pm, from Newark to Lomé, capital of Togo, by Ethiopian Airlines.

With the stoppage, your flight was rescheduled for 6am on Saturday (14). "I'm going to have to spend the night here. I'm trapped," he told Reuters.

Louise Maher, 47, was also affected by the outage. She was waiting for a British Airways flight to London when operations were suspended. "Maybe I'll cry at some point, but not yet," he said.

In the US, airlines will not be required to pay compensation to affected passengers, as the failure occurred in FAA systems, and not through the companies' responsibility.

Airline shares fall after shutdown

The impact of the crisis also reached the financial market. Shares of American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines fell between 1% and 2% in trading carried out after the regular closing of American stock exchanges.

JetBlue Airways shares fell approximately 3%.

The reaction reflects investors' concern about the losses caused by cancellations and the costs necessary to reorganize operations.

American Airlines said it will prioritize international flights and routes to smaller cities outside its main hubs. The strategy seeks to reposition planes and crews to accelerate normalization.

Longest shutdown since the September 11 attacks

This Friday's suspension was the longest recorded throughout the United States since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Since then, the only other national interruption of takeoffs had occurred in January 2023, when a failure in the FAA's information system caused a stoppage of approximately 90 minutes.

This time, the suspension lasted around four hours and affected thousands of flights, with consequences that will still be felt in the coming days.