The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) halted all domestic flight departures from the United States shortly after 7 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday. The agency tweeted that it had “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 FAA subsequently extended the pause until 9:30 a.m. and noted that medical and military flights were not affected. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said there was no evidence of a cyberattack.
President Joe Biden made a brief statement to reporters on the FAA outage Wednesday, noting he was in touch with Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. He said aircraft could still land safely, but not take off right now. When asked whether it was a cyberattack, Biden said, “They don’t know.”
The FAA lifted the departure ban shortly before 9 a.m. and normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually. The agency said they expect to have a good sense of what caused the outage in a couple of hours.
Overall, thousands of flights were delayed due to the outage. The FAA is continuing to investigate the cause of the disruption.
Key takeaways:
- The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) halted all domestic flight departures from the United States shortly after 7 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday.
- White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said there was no evidence of a cyberattack.
- The FAA lifted the departure ban shortly before 9 a.m. and normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually.
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