Flight Departures Across U.S. Suspended Due To Computer Outage

Image: Passenger checking the flight schedule. (photo via Tzido / iStock / Getty Images Plus)
Image: Passenger checking the flight schedule. (photo via Tzido / iStock / Getty Images Plus)
Bruce Parkinson
by Bruce Parkinson
Last updated: 7:41 AM ET, Wed January 11, 2023

A computer outage at the Federal Aviation Administration has resulted in flights delays across the United States. The outage is also delaying outbound flights from Canada to the U.S. The aviation authority has now announced that all flights will be suspended until at least 9:00 am ET.

CBC News reports that just before 7 a.m. ET, there were nearly 1,200 delayed flights within, into or out of the United States, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. Most were concentrated along the East Coast. Several flights to U.S. destinations on the departure boards of Canadian airports were showing delays of from 30 minutes to over an hour.

The FAA said in a tweet that it was working on restoring its Notice to Air Missions System (NOTAMs), which sends out alerts about flight restrictions or broken equipment. All aircraft are required to route through the system, which raises the potential for widespread disruption because of the outage.

"We are performing final validation checks and reloading the system now," the FAA said. "Operations across the National Airspace System are affected."

After the first update, the FAA said about 30 minutes later that "some functions" were beginning to come back on line, but that National Airspace System operations remained limited.

United Airlines said that it had temporarily delayed all domestic flights and would issue an update once it learned more from the FAA.

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