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US flights resumed on Friday, November 13, after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted a nationwide suspension, AnewZ reports. A communications system failure at air traffic control centers caused major disruption at airports. It was the longest nationwide flight suspension in the United States since the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said US airspace reopened at 5:15 a.m. Baku time on November 14. Flights would resume gradually, and it would take time for airlines to return to normal operations, he said. “This is going to be slow,” Duffy told reporters at the White House.
More than 6,600 flights were canceled and 8,600 delayed, according to FlightRadar24. Another 1,500 flights had been canceled for Sunday. Aviation analysts said a four-hour nationwide flight suspension could affect airlines’ schedules for several days.
The FAA said the outage began at 3:36 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, with telecommunications problems at aviation facilities and TRACONs nationwide. As a precaution, flights were suspended while more than 3,500 aircraft were in the air. Pilots and air traffic controllers landed aircraft safely in accordance with established procedures; by 8 p.m. Eastern Time, fewer than 400 aircraft remained in US airspace.
The FAA said not all radar and communications systems had failed. Exceptions were made for medical evacuations, life-saving cargo and law enforcement flights.
Duffy said tens of thousands of passengers were stranded at airports across the country. He said he and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin met with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office to discuss the outage.
Duffy said the problem was caused by instability in radar and communications systems. “Our switches and routers became overloaded with data, and inconsistencies arose in the data coming from them. That’s why we shut down the system,” the secretary said.
Duffy said radar and communications were never completely lost and that thousands of aircraft had landed safely. He said the initial problem had been resolved and flights were safe, while stressing the need for a broader upgrade of the aging air traffic control system to prevent similar failures.
The incident was seen as a more serious indication of the challenges facing the US air traffic control system, including outdated technology and equipment, communications problems and a shortage of several thousand controllers.
