MILWAUKEE, Wis. — A nationwide ground stop has been lifted after the FAA experienced a system outage early Wednesday morning. Regular air traffic operations are slowly resuming, the FAA said on Twitter.
This news comes after the FAA ordered that all domestic flights nationwide be grounded until 8 a.m. local time following a system outage.
Around 5:30 a.m., Mitchell International Airport confirmed an FAA system was down, causing all flights from Milwaukee to be grounded. Mitchell International Airport said the system that was down provides information to pilots. Because this communication system is down, pilots couldn't get the information they need to take off.
A spokesman at the airport said any planes that were currently in the air would be allowed to land, but no additional flights would be taking off.
The FAA was sharing frequent updates throughout the morning as it worked to restore the system.
The first update said some functions are coming back online, but the operations still remain limited. Later, the FAA ordered an official pause on all domestic departures until 9 a.m. eastern time.
That stop is to allow the FAA time to "validate the integrity of flight and safety information."
At 7:15 a.m., the FAA said it is resuming flights out of Newark and Atlanta due to traffic congestion. All other airports are expected to resume departures at 8 a.m. local time.
The White House Press Secretary tweeted about the incident saying President Joe Biden has been briefed. She said there's no evidence of a cyber attack, but the President has directed the Department of Transportation to conduct a full investigation.
The FAA is working to restore its Notice to Air Missions System. We are performing final validation checks and reloading the system now.
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023
Operations across the National Airspace System are affected.
We will provide frequent updates as we make progress.
The President has been briefed by the Secretary of Transportation this morning on the FAA system outage. There is no evidence of a cyberattack at this point, but the President directed DOT to conduct a full investigation into the causes. The FAA will provide regular updates.
— Karine Jean-Pierre (@PressSec) January 11, 2023
Check your flight status if you're traveling today. A system outage at the FAA is preventing aircraft from departing at airports nationwide. Please keep in touch with your airline if you're schedule to fly this morning. We will provide updates here when the system is restored.
— MKE - Milwaukee Airport (@MitchellAirport) January 11, 2023
This is a developing story. TMJ4 News will update this article as we learn more.
