UPDATE
The Federal Aviation Administration took to Twitter Thursday morning to announce that operations are back to normal, with delays/cancellations now under control.
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ORIGINAL STORY
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has lifted a ground stop after a computer outage impacted flights nationwide Wednesday morning, NBC News reports.
This comes after the administration’s Notice to Air Missions System “failed,” according to the FAA. Officials described the system as a notice to pilots that contains critical information, such as equipment outages, hazards along the route, etc.
An individual familiar with the matter told NBC News that all flights across the U.S. were grounded as a result of the incident, and shortly before 9 a.m., the ground stop was lifted. Regardless though, it could take hours for delays to subside, according to NBC News.
Update 5: Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually across the U.S. following an overnight outage to the Notice to Air Missions system that provides safety info to flight crews. The ground stop has been lifted.
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023
We continue to look into the cause of the initial problem
As of approximately 9 a.m., more than 4,000 flights within, into or out of the United States have been delayed, data from the flight tracking website FlightAware shows. More than 2,000 flights were canceled. At this time, it is unclear what led to the outage.
Several flights with the Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport have been delayed as well, some for as much as three hours. To check your flight status, click here.
10 News has reached out to both the Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport and Lynchburg Regional Aiport for comment. Mike Stewart with the Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport told us the following:
The only other news right now as we understand it from the FAA, is that both the primary and backup NOTAM systems went down yesterday afternoon, they are still trying to find the issue and repair but no estimate yet. Apparently, the FAA did say this morning that they have no indication of a cyber crime issue at this point.
Mike Stewart, Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport
The Lynchburg Regional Airport posted to their Facebook, saying:
We will continue to update this article as we learn more about how this outage will specifically affect our region.
Stay with 10 News as this breaking news story develops