After four hours, the flight ban in the United States was lifted, but the return to normality will be slow .
It was a Friday of chaos in the American skies, after the aviation authority, in a very rare move, halted takeoffs nationwide. The reason? "Communication issues that impacted multiple air traffic control centers," the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) explained.
"Due to extraordinary circumstances and for safety reasons. Attention all aircraft operators: By order of the Federal Aviation Command Center, all airports are closed," the Notam (aeronautical bulletin) issued. "All outbound traffic must remain grounded until further notice. Inbound international flights will be handled on a case-by-case basis."
Flights were restored after four hours: according to the Cirium agency , 8,200 flights were canceled, nearly a third of those scheduled for the entire day, and thousands were delayed . And despite the lifting of the ban, the disruption will continue into Saturday.
The nationwide ban on flights "due to extraordinary circumstances," imposed shortly after 4 p.m. local time (10 p.m. Italian time) on Friday by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) , has sparked fears of tragic scenarios, deeply etched in Americans' memories. Such a draconian measure by the Air Transport Authority was adopted in 2023, when a malfunction caused an FAA computer system to fail, and especially after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers .
"There's no indication that this was a malicious attack: for now, it's just a telecommunications disruption. We're not under attack, there's no danger. This is not a new 9/11 ," Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin assured from the West Wing of the White House after nearly an hour of uncertainty. Then, about four hours after the disruption, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed "switches and routers that were really jammed with data" for the grounding, which left tens of thousands of passengers stranded.
Duffy, in a press conference with Mullin at the White House held almost simultaneously with the lifting of the lockdown, spoke of a real emergency for modernizing facilities and called on Congress to allocate $50 billion . "Will it happen again? I can't say if that's the case," he added.
The technological upgrades made "overloaded the FAA's existing system," causing it to fail, he explained . "It will continue to fail," he concluded. Mullin explained that "there was never any life at risk, no flight at risk. There is no indication that the system's collapse was related to a cyber attack," Microsoft's Outlook problems, or any action related to artificial intelligence .
He emphasized that President Donald Trump was kept constantly informed of events. The tycoon did not appear at the briefing, but told Fox News that he believed the chaos in the skies was linked to "outdated infrastructure." Why didn't Trump speak directly? "The president has confidence in his leadership team: that's why we're so committed to his leadership. Secretary Duffy said he's the best president we've ever had: there's never been a builder and leader like him at the head of the nation, outlining a vision and assembling a team," Mullin specified.
The return to normal air traffic at airports across the country, from New York to Los Angeles, "will be slow," Duffy admitted.
(Unioneonline)