Planes to US grounded due to large-scale computer failure – Informatics – News

Planes in the United States are grounded Wednesday afternoon due to software problems. The Federal Aviation Authority has already delayed or canceled more than 1,200 domestic flights, although the nature of the problems is unclear.

The Federal Aviation Administration, the national air traffic regulator writes it in a short statement that all domestic flights are temporarily not allowed to take off or land. This applies in any case until 15:00 Dutch time, i.e. between 6:00 and 9:00 in North America. Some flights to and from the country were also canceled or delayed.

The flights were delayed due to a malfunction in the air mission warning system, or notam. This is a sistem where flight crews and airline managers receive up-to-date information about a flight at the last minute. This includes, for example, information about departure or arrival airports or procedures and weather on a route. That system is currently disrupted across the country, the FAA says.

The FAA is currently attempting to restart the system after it “failed”. The aviation authority is not providing details on exactly what went wrong with the system and what caused the delay. For example, the FAA doesn’t say whether it’s a faulty update or a cyber attack, for example, despite much speculation about the latter.