UPDATE: The Federal Aviation Administration is lifting a ground stop on flights across the U.S. following a computer outage early Wednesday that resulted in thousands of delays and hundreds of cancellations quickly cascading through the system at airports nationwide.
A nationwide FAA computer outage Wednesday grounded flights across the country until about 9 a.m., sources tell CBS News.
Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually following the overnight outage to the FAA’s Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system that provides safety information to flight crews.
The agency said they are continuing to look into the cause of the initial problem.
The FAA is working to restore its Notice to Air Missions System. We are performing final validation checks and reloading the system now.
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023
Operations across the National Airspace System are affected.
We will provide frequent updates as we make progress.
President Joe Biden responded to the incident early Wednesday morning.
"I just spoke with (Transportation Secretary Pete) Buttigieg. They don't know what the cause is. But I was on the phone with him" Biden said. "I told them to report directly to me when they find out. Aircraft can still land safely, just not take off right now. They don't know what the cause of it is; they expect in a couple of hours, they'll have a good sense of what caused it and will respond at that time."
The White House said it has "no evidence" of this being caused by a cyberattack "at this point."
Just before 7 a.m. Eastern, 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.
