Flights Around the Country are Gradually Resuming after FAA System Outage

On Thursday morning all U.S. flights were grounded…what happened?

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) made an announcement no traveler wants to hear. All early morning flights on Thursday were ordered to stay on the ground due to issues with an important system for pilots.

Yahoo Finance reported, “The FAA said it was grounding all flights until 9 a.m. ET this morning in order to “validate the integrity of flight and safety information,” stemming from an outage with its Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system.”

The NOTAM system provides information to pilots about the conditions that could affect their flights. According to CNN, it is a “critical tool for air safety.”

The system failure is a result of a needed upgrade, according to Geoff Freeman, CEO of the US Travel Association. “Today’s FAA catastrophic system failure is a clear sign that America’s transportation network desperately needs significant upgrades,” he said on Wednesday.

The FAA announced on Wednesday that flights had gradually begun to resume.