US lifts ‘ground stop’ on flights after massive system outage; White House rules out cyberattack

Washington, Jan 11: Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually across the US following an overnight outage to the Notice to Air Missions system that provides safety info to flight crews, United States Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) said.

The FAA scrambled to fix the system outage, with passengers told to check with airlines for updates.

Earlier, the FAA had ordered airlines to pause domestic departures until 9:00 am EST (7:30pm Indian time) on Wednesday after a system outage used by pilots, according to US authorities.

''Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually across the US following an overnight outage to the Notice to Air Missions system that provides safety info to flight crews. The ground stop has been lifted. We continue to look into the cause of the initial problem,'' FAA said in a tweet.

The outage comes as a result of the failure of the Notice to Air Missions system (NOTAM), which alerts pilots and other personnel about airborne issues and other delays at airports across the country. A NOTAM is a notice containing information essential to personnel concerned with flight operations but not known far enough in advance to be publicized by other means. It states the abnormal status of a component of the National Airspace System (NAS) - not the normal status, according to FAA's website.

According to FlightAware, a flight tracking company, more than 1,200 flights within, into or out of the US were delayed and more than 100 were cancelled.

Shares of U.S. carriers fell in Wednesday's premarket trading. Southwest Airlines was down 2.4%, while Delta Air Lines Inc, United Airlines and American Airlines were down about 1%.

No evidence' of Cyberattack 'at this point': White House

There is no sign of a cyberattack "at this point" in the computer problem that triggered US authorities to pause all domestic air travel departures Wednesday, the White House said, adding that President Joe Biden has been briefed.

"The president has been briefed by the secretary of transportation this morning on the FAA system outage. There is no evidence of a cyberattack at this point, but the President directed DOT to conduct a full investigation into the causes. The FAA will provide regular updates," tweeted Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, referring to the transport department and federal aviation authority.