530 Flights Cancelled, 430 Delayed: Thousands of Passengers Stranded Amid US Flight Chaos

Washington: Air travellers in America are facing a lot of problems. Flight services across the country were severely affected after a technical glitch in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic control system. The situation worsened so much on Friday that the FAA had to impose a temporary ban on takeoffs of planes across the US. Due to this, thousands of flights had to be cancelled, while a large number of flights were delayed. Even on Saturday, there was crowd of passengers at the airport and chaos in flights. According to officials, it may take time to bring the system back to normal.

Why did all flights suddenly have to be stopped in America?

Technical problems related to communication systems and radar were reported in many air traffic control centers of America. After this, FAA implemented ground stop at airports across the country on Friday. Under this decision, planes were stopped from flying, so that air traffic could be kept safe.

This stoppage continued for about four and a half hours. It was later removed at around 8:15 pm (US Eastern Time). However, even after flights resumed, delays and cancellations continued due to disruption to the availability of aircraft and crew.

What is being said to be the reason for the technical fault?

According to US transportation officials, this problem came to light during the work of replacing the old copper wire with fiber optic cable in the air traffic control system. This work was being done by FAA contractor L3Harris.

Officials say that during this time a new router installed started sending unusually high connection requests. This increased the pressure on the air traffic control network and caused disturbances in communication and radar data from aircraft.

How many flights were affected?

According to FlightAware data, more than 12,500 flights were canceled on Friday and Saturday combined. Apart from this, thousands of flights were delayed. A large number of passengers had to wait for hours at the airport.

The impact of this technical glitch was seen at major airports in America. Airlines had to make new arrangements for their planes and crew, which also affected flight schedules. 

Did air services come to a standstill due to cyber attack?

After this incident, the possibility of a cyber attack was also raised, but American officials have currently rejected it. According to Homeland Security officials and the FAA, initial investigations have found no signs of a cyberattack.

The FAA clarified that the problem was related to a malfunction in technical equipment. Officials also said that the real reason for the malfunction will be made public after the investigation is completed.

When will flight services return to normal in America?

The American FAA hopes that air services can be largely normal by Sunday, November 15. However, officials have warned that it may take some time for the full schedule of flights to be restored.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has also raised the demand for additional funding of 50 billion dollars to modernise the air traffic control system. He says that dependence on old technology can cause such problems in future.