More than 3,000 flights are canceled in the USA after a breakdown that halted takeoffs

More than 4,000 flights with origin, destination or operation in the United States were canceled or suffered delays this Saturday (14), reflecting the nationwide suspension of takeoffs determined the day before by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

According to data from the FlightAware monitoring platform, at 7 am (Brasília time), there were 3,314 cancellations and 899 delays related to American airports. The numbers are updated in real time and may change throughout the day.

The wave of disruption occurs after a communication failure led the FAA to order the suspension of takeoffs at all airports in the country on Friday (13). The strike was ended after four hours, but it should have repercussions on global air flow this weekend.

The outage affected systems used by air traffic controllers to communicate with pilots and coordinate aircraft movements. Planes that were already in the air were able to land, but new departures were suspended while the agency investigated the problem.

The determination also had repercussions outside American territory. Eurocontrol, the organization responsible for coordinating air traffic in 42 European and neighboring countries, reported that all flights to the United States from its member countries had been suspended at the request of the FAA.

The shutdown was the second national suspension of takeoffs in the United States since the September 11 attacks. The previous one occurred in January 2023, when a failure in the pilot notification system led to the interruption of domestic flights for less than two hours.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there is no evidence of a cyberattack or sabotage. The FBI also did not believe that the failure was caused by criminal action. According to authorities, the problem was related to a telecommunications interruption.