The Federal Aviation Administration is probing what caused a key pilot notification system to fail overnight, prompting a 90-minute group stop early Wednesday and more headaches for air travelers and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was unable to pinpoint the cause of the outage but said the administration did not suspect a rogue act.
“We do not have evidence this outage was caused by a cyberattack,” she said.
Ms. Jean-Pierre said the FAA is trying to figure out what caused the outage “so that it does not happen again.”
The FAA said normal air traffic operations resumed around 9 a.m. after travelers across the U.S. experienced widespread delays because the Notice to Air system went down. The notice system provides pilots with vital safety information on potential hazards and airspace restrictions.
The unusual shutdown sparked a scramble to get planes up and running, with airports advising passengers to check with their carriers for updates.
Passengers in London reported they were stuck on the tarmac at Heathrow Airport for over three hours because of the outage before their flight took off for Dallas, according to CNN.
At the White House, President Biden said he ordered Mr. Buttigieg to investigate.
“I told them to report directly to me when they find out,” Mr. Biden said at the White House. “They don’t know what the cause of it is.”
Mr. Buttigieg told CNN that he did not suspect a cyberattack but stopped short of ruling it out completely. He also defended the ground stop as a precaution.
“Part of what you saw this morning was an act of caution to be sure – until it was 100% airtight that the system was working properly even just delivering messages – that we had that ground stop,” he said.
FlightAware, a key tracking site, reported over 8,000 delays within, into or out of the U.S. on Wednesday and over 1,000 cancellations as of Wednesday afternoon.
The morning chaos was the latest headache for flight travelers. Southwest Airlines had a holiday-period meltdown, forcing it to process thousands of requests for refunds.
Some political figures cast blame on Mr. Buttigieg, a potential Democratic 2024 frontrunner if Mr. Biden declines to run, as responsible for the shutdown.
“Mayor Pete doesn’t know what happened or how he is going to fix it,” Rep. Andy Biggs, Arizona Republican, said on Twitter. “He shouldn’t be permitted to lead it. From supply chain issues to consistent flight cancellations, the DOT job has become too big for him.”
For his part, Mr. Buttigieg said it would be appropriate for Congress to scrutinize whether technology upgrades are needed at the FAA.
Other lawmakers called for reforms at the FAA, which is operating under acting Administration Billy Nolen.
Mr. Biden nominated Phillip A. Washington, the chief executive of Denver International Airport, for the FAA post in July but he must be renominated in the new Congress and has limited aviation experience, meaning his confirmation is not assured.
“The FAA’s inability to keep an important safety system up and running is completely unacceptable and just the latest example of dysfunction within the Department of Transportation,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican.
“The administration needs to explain to Congress what happened, and Congress should enact reforms in this year’s FAA reauthorization legislation. This incident also highlights why the public needs a competent, proven leader with substantive aviation experience leading the FAA,” Mr. Cruz said.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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