Computer outage leads to flight delays throughout U.S. | CBC News

Flights are being delayed at multiple locations across the United States after a computer outage at the Federal Aviation Administration.

Just before 7 a.m. ET, there were nearly 1,200 delayed flights within, into or out of the United States, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.

Most delays were concentrated along the East Coast.

The agency said in an initial tweet that it was working on restoring its Notice to Air Missions System (NOTAMs).

“We are performing final validation checks and reloading the system now,” the FAA said. “Operations across the National Airspace System are affected.”

About 45 minutes later, the U.S. transportation agency ordered airlines to pause domestic departures until 9 a.m. 

Some departures from Canadian airports delayed

NOTAMs used to be available through a hotline but that was phased out with the internet. The alerts span from mundane information about construction at airports to urgent flight restrictions or broken equipment.

After the first update, the FAA said about 30 minutes later that “some functions” were beginning to come back on line, without specifying, but that National Airspace System operations remained limited.

There is a potential for widespread disruption because of the outage. All aircraft are required to route through the system, including commercial and military flights.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a tweet that he is in touch with the FAA and monitoring the situation.

Several flights to U.S. destinations on the departure boards of Canadian airports are showing delays of from 30 minutes to over an hour.

Toronto’s Pearson Airport advised travellers with U.S. routes to check their flight status before heading to the airport.