Flights are taking off again after a nationwide ban on departures across the United States, due to what authorities say was a “telecommunications outage,” which they claim was caused by outdated air traffic control systems.
Officials said all aircraft in the air landed safely. But 15 000 flights due to take off were delayed or cancelled, with knock-on effects around the world.
The UK’s aviation authority is warning passengers that “while US flights have resumed, there may be some follow-on disruption as airlines work to re-book affected passengers and get all services back to normal.”
European airports joined hubs as far away as Australia in halting flights to the US as the situation unfolded.
Now planes, pilots and cabin crew are in the wrong location to avoid knock-on effects into Saturday and Sunday.
The incident lasted more than four hours – the longest time a nationwide “ground stop” has been ordered since unprecedented airspace restrictions went into effect during 9/11 in 2001.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed radar and communication issues caused by old analogue technology being “overloaded with data.”
“We didn’t lose all telecom. We didn’t lose all radar. But that instability, because of abundance of caution and making sure we keep the American flier safe, we did the ground stop.”
He warned there “would” be more failures if the antiquated air traffic control system isn’t updated, which he said would require 50 billion dollars of emergency to be authorised by Congress.
Duffy said “it doesn’t appear” a cyber attack was behind this – and officials have ruled out any connection to do with the recent global Microsoft Outlook problems. -Reporting by Stuart Smith, SABC News, London