A Federal Aviation Administration computer system outage Wednesday morning caused all domestic departing flights to be grounded. This impacted nearly 10,000 flights. By 9 am, the FAA resumed normal air traffic operations. However, the damage was already done. There were at least 1,300 canceled flights and 9,000 flight delays.
What was the problem?
Wednesday, everyone was frustrated and wanted to know why it was yet another chaotic day for airports across the country. Even President Biden reportedly demanded an explanation from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. It was discovered there was an outage of the FAA’s Notice to Air Missions Systems. The system is responsible for sending notifications to pilots about flight restrictions, hazards, and broken equipment.
Backlash for Buttigieg
During the grounded flights, there were many speculations about what happened, including rumors of a cyber attack. The White House confirmed there was no cyber attack. Many Republican leaders did criticize the Department of Transportation’s handling of the situation. With this being the second major chaotic moment for airports within weeks, many travelers also took to Twitter, wanting to know what Buttigieg was doing. The tweets were filled with frustrated travelers and leaders questioning Buttigieg’s ability to do his job. People were so frustrated Buttigieg was a trending topic on Twitter for most of the day.
The FAA’s inability to keep an important safety system up and running is completely unacceptable and just the latest example of dysfunction within the Department of Transportation.
The administration needs to explain to Congress what happened. https://t.co/VzNenjlqLI
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) January 11, 2023
Buttigieg is the most useless cabinet secretary in a generation
All of us know he cares more about TV appearances than actually doing his job https://t.co/IfQYar0jWZ
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) January 11, 2023
The frustration likely stems from the overwhelming cancellations during last month’s major holiday travel season and Southwest Airlines’ nightmare. He eventually sent out a video hoping to reassure the FAA was assessing the causes of the outage and flight safety was always a top priority.
Safety is always our first priority, and ensuring flight safety was the reason for this morning’s ground stop while the affected systems were restored and checked. As normal flight operations have resumed, FAA continues to assess the causes of the outage. pic.twitter.com/JhsYKBDney
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) January 11, 2023
Hopefully, there will be no more chaos with the FAA as the agency remains without a permanent leader. President Biden has nominated Denver International CEO Phil Washington for the position. However, Washington has yet to receive a confirmation hearing.
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