Thousands of flights delayed after FAA system outage, but minimal impact in Columbus

A computer outage at the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded all domestic flights in the United States Wednesday morning, but local travelers were spared the brunt of the disruption.

It all began when the transportation agency said just before 7 a.m. that it was working to restore its Notice to Air Missions system following an outage. Pilots check the NOTAM system before they fly, and it alerts them about closed runways, equipment outages and other potential hazards along a flight route or at a location that could affect the flight, according to the FAA.

About 19 minutes later, the FAA ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures until 9 a.m. "to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information."

The ground stop was later lifted on time, with the FAA saying it would continue to look into what caused the overnight outage.

FlightAware, a flight tracking company, was reporting by early Wednesday afternoon that more than 6,700 flights within, into or out of the United States had been delayed. More than 1,000 were cancelled.

The impact of the computer outage to John Glenn Columbus International Airport, however, appeared to be limited.

By midday Wednesday, only seven of the airport's flights in the preceding 24 hours had been cancelled. The airport handles about 120 departures on an average weekday, according to Sarah McQuaide, a spokesperson for the Columbus Regional Airport Authority, which operates John Glenn.

McQuaide earlier Wednesday morning said the airport was experiencing "some delays," but couldn't say whether those were caused by the FAA system failure. She encouraged passengers to check their flight status before heading to the airport.

Just after 8:30 a.m., things appeared to be running fairly smoothly at the airport. The only indication of something being amiss were the 30- to 90-minute delays to multiple flights shown on a display board.

Passengers could be seen checking in for their flights, and security lines were short. Customers were being informed by attendants of the delays and the reasons behind them, with most customers appearing to take the news in stride.

Southwest Airlines, the top airline at John Glenn that served about a third of the airport's passengers in 2022, previously said in a tweet that it was closely "monitoring a data issue with the FAA," saying it may impact the airline's operations. It urged travelers to check their flight status.

Did the FAA shut down flights?

Not exactly. The NOTAM system provides pilots with crucial safety information for every flight, and the FAA temporarily grounded new departures while it addressed the outage.

It's the first time departures have been halted nationwide since 9/11.

"This is rare. ... The fact that they had to initiate a ground stop across the United States, that hasn't happened since September 11th, 2001. So you get an idea of the magnitude of this," Mike McCormick, assistant professor in applied aviation sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told reporters.

Washington weighs in

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed early Wednesday that President Joe Biden had been briefed by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on the situation.

"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," Jean-Pierre said on Twitter.

Buttigieg tweeted that the FAA had concluded that the safety system impacted by the outage overnight was completely restored, and said he had "directed an after-action process to determine root causes and recommend next steps."

Dispatch business editor Ben Lanka and Zach Wichter of USA Today contributed to this report.

Monroe Trombly covers breaking and trending news.

mtrombly@dispatch.com

@monroetrombly

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: FAA computer outage delays air travel nationwide