In the United States, air travel is gradually resuming after a nationwide five-hour ban on aircraft takeoffs. The large-scale disruption affected thousands of flights and potentially more than one million passengers. President Donald Trump's administration attributed the incident to an overload of the outdated air traffic control system, but warned that similar disruptions could happen again. The Associated Press reports, as UNN writes.
Details
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted the nationwide restrictions in the evening of November 13. For approximately five hours, most passenger aircraft were prohibited from taking off from U.S. airports.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said the problems may have been caused by the installation of new equipment, which placed excessive strain on outdated infrastructure.
We are installing new equipment, new technologies, and this is overloading the old system
According to the official, more than 3,000 aircraft were safely landed. At the same time, specialists are continuing to determine the exact cause of the malfunction.
Mullin emphasized that there are currently no indications of a cyberattack or deliberate interference with the operation of the aviation system.
The U.S. warned that the aviation collapse could happen again
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy acknowledged that the authorities cannot guarantee that there will be no further large-scale disruptions.
We were able to determine what went wrong, reboot the system, and get it running. But there will be more incidents like this
According to the secretary, the problems occurred specifically with the old equipment, while the new systems were functioning properly. He also denied any connection between the incident and artificial intelligence technologies that the FAA is implementing to forecast problems in the airspace.
Duffy accused Congress of providing insufficient funding for the modernization of aviation infrastructure. Previously, lawmakers allocated $12.5 billion for these needs, but the Trump administration is requesting an additional $30 billion.
Thousands of flights were affected, and aircraft had to be diverted
According to aviation analytics company Cirium, at least 827 flights were rerouted because of the large-scale restrictions. Of these, 670 aircraft returned to their departure airports, while another 157 landed at other airports.
Some aircraft were diverted to Washington, Los Angeles, and Nashville.
After the ban was lifted, airlines began gradually restoring domestic flights. However, it may take several days for the schedule to fully return to normal, as a significant number of aircraft and crews ended up in locations other than those planned.
According to the AP, this was the first nationwide halt to takeoffs in the United States since January 2023 and the second since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
U.S. authorities hope to fully stabilize air travel before the start of the peak travel season ahead of Thanksgiving. At the same time, the risk of further technical disruptions remains.