WASHINGTON – The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered all airlines nationwide to pause domestic departures until at least 9:30 a.m. Eastern after a major system outage affected flights early Wednesday morning.
In a statement, the FAA said the system failure was with the NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions), which is an important notice that contains essential information to personnel connected to flight operations.
In a tweet, the FAA said it was continuing to perform final validation checks and working to reload the system.
However, while those checks are being conducted, the FAA ordered all airlines to pause departures.
“Operations across the National Airspace System are affected,” the FAA said in a tweet.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said he has been in contact with the FAA about the major system outage and said the administration was continuing to work to resolve the issue “swiftly and safely” so air traffic could resume normal operations.
HERE’S WHAT CAUSES TURBULENCE AND WHY YOU SHOULDN’T BE AFRAID OF IT
More than 1,200 flights nationwide have been impacted by the FAA system outage, and while departures have been halted until later Wednesday morning, that number is expected to continue to grow.
Flights in the air have not been affected and will continue to their final destinations, with pilots remaining in constant communication with air traffic controllers.
Anyone who is scheduled to travel on Wednesday should call their airline directly before heading to the airport to make sure flights have not been delayed or canceled.
FOX Business correspondent Edward Lawrence was in Mexico City on Wednesday morning waiting for a flight to the United States when the issue began.
“We had actually partially boarded our flight and was sitting in the chair and we were told we had to get off the flight because all flights going into the United States have been grounded because of the issues that the FAA is having,” Lawrence told FOX Weather meteorologist Jason Frazer on Wednesday.
Lawrence said passengers at the airport have been waiting patiently for information about upcoming flights.
“It’s very early in the morning, so folks are just sitting down and waiting,” he said. “We had a discussion with the pilot as we were getting off the plane, and he was saying this was the first time he has seen this kind of stoppage for this particular system.”
This is a developing story. Check back with FOX Weather for updates.