Federal Aviation Administration halted all departing flights nationwide on Friday due to an unexpected telecommunications failure across air route traffic control centers.
The nationwide emergency restriction began at 20:53 GMT and was scheduled to run through 04:30 GMT on Saturday, ANTARA reported. CNN Indonesia reported that incoming international flights were handled on a case-by-case basis while domestic departures remained grounded.
Department of Homeland Security officials quickly addressed public concern by confirming the disruption stemmed from technical failures rather than malicious intent. “This is not an event like 9/11,” said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
Mullin also told CNN Indonesia that “there are no signs of a threat to the US” and emphasized that “this is purely a telecommunications glitch.”
Major carriers began returning aircraft to the skies late Friday after the Federal Aviation Administration lifted the ground stop order, BBC reported. Delta Airlines announced via social media that it had safely resumed operations.
“Thank you for your patience while we work as quickly as possible to fully restore normal operations,” Delta said on social media, as cited by BBC.
United Airlines also brought back select evening flights following the safety clearance. “Safety is our top priority in serving our customers and our employees,” United said on social media, according to BBC.
Transportation officials traced the crisis to overwhelmed system architecture rather than any outside cyberattack.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy briefed the White House on the situation after airspace reopened on Friday evening. “Our switch and router devices experienced data overload, so the system collapsed,” Duffy told AFP, pointing to outdated equipment.
Mullin dismissed speculation connecting the outage to global software incidents or coordinated hacking attempts. “There is no cyberattack whatsoever,” Mullin told AFP, noting a lack of claims of responsibility.
The agency enacted the stop due to a temporary telecommunications failure that affected air route traffic control centers across the country, as reported by CNN Indonesia.
Incoming international flights were managed individually on a case-by-case basis, while all domestic departures were held on the ground until the order lifted, according to ANTARA.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told AFP that outdated switches and routers suffered data overloads that paralyzed the air traffic control network.
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