The first grounding of all U.S. commercial air flights since 9/11 commenced Wednesday morning around 3 a.m. before being lifted five hours later, the Federal Aviation Administration announced.
An FAA computer system that pilots use to access flight plans and communicate with air traffic control went offline about 3 a.m. CST, stranding passengers and backing up flights across the country.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre took to Twitter, tweeting that there was “no evidence of a cyberattack at this point.”
The outage will be felt throughout the day, however, as delayed passenger flights stack up at airports.
Here in the Valley, United Airlines flight 4907 departing for Houston at 9:18 a.m. was delayed until 10:24 a.m. at Brownsville-South Padre Island International Airport.
At Valley International Airport, five arriving flights were marked as “delayed” as of 8:30 a.m. CST.
At McAllen International Airport, one arriving flight coming in at 11:08 a.m. was delayed, along with three departing flights.
The computer system that failed is called the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system.
The system provides vital information for pilots and others involved with flight operations and alerts pilots to any hazards they may face en route to their destinations.
