For the first time since the September 11th attacks, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has grounded all domestic flights Wednesday morning after suffering a nationwide technical outage.
On “Mornings with Maria,” FOX Business White House correspondent Edward Lawrence was in Mexico City, waiting to board a flight to Dallas that’s now delayed. “indefinitely.”
“We talked to the pilot. We did get on the plane, and we were sitting in our seats and then ended up getting off the plane because, they, for security reasons, they wanted us in the airport,” Lawrence reported. “The pilot told me that all American flights internationally are not going anywhere and they have no indication as to when that will change.”
“In talking to the pilots,” he continued, “they said they’ve never seen this kind of ground stop with this kind of issue.”
HUNDREDS OF FLIGHTS GROUNDED NATIONWIDE AFTER F.A.A. EXPERIENCES COMPUTER OUTAGE
The outage comes as a result of the failure of the FAA’s NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) system, which alerts pilots and other personnel about airborne issues and other delays at airports across the country.
“The NOTAM outage continued with no current estimated time of restoration,” the FAA website stated Wednesday morning.
“The FAA is still working to fully restore the Notice to Air Missions system following an outage,” an email statement to Fox News read. “While some functions are beginning to come back on line, National Airspace System operations remain limited.”
Southwest Airlines Pilots Association Vice President Cpt. Michael Santoro also warned travelers will feel a “huge” impact from the mishap.
“The last time we had all airplanes grounded was, I hate to say it, but back in 9/11,” Santoro told host Maria Bartiromo. “No airplanes move, so that’s what we’re looking at today.”
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U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tweeted that the department is acting “swiftly and safely” to resolve this issue.
“I have been in touch with FAA this morning about an outage affecting a key system for providing safety information to pilots,” Buttigieg said. “FAA is working to resolve this issue swiftly and safely so that air traffic can resume normal operations, and will continue to provide updates.”
FOX Business’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.