JUST IN: All Flights Grounded Abruptly At Buffalo Airport

News broke on Wednesday morning that all flights across the country could be impacted following a computer system failure, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Association (U.S. FAA). 

The affected system is designed to alert pilots and other flight personnel about hazards or any changes to airport facility services and relevant procedures. On early Wednesday morning, the system was no longer processing this information, as the civil aviation regulator’s website showed on Wednesday. 

Flights across multiple airlines have been delayed going to and from the Buffalo Niagara Airport. 

There is no immediate estimate for when the system would be back up and running, but it is impacting millions of travelers. 

The F.A.A. released an official statement on their verified Twitter page.

"The FAA is working to restore its Notice to Air Missions System. We are performing final validation checks and reloading the system now.

 

Operations across the National Airspace System are affected.

 

We will provide frequent updates as we make progress."

You can see all the grounded flights across the country via the flight tracker website called FlightAware. 

Operations across the National Airspace System are affected, and we will provide you with more updates as they become available. 

*UPDATE 6:59 AM: The F.A.A. cleared an update No. 2 for stakeholders.

"Cleared Update No. 2 for all stakeholders:

 

The FAA is still working to fully restore the Notice to Air Missions system following an outage.

 

While some functions are beginning to come back on line, National Airspace System operations remain limited."

*UPDATE 7:20 AM: The F.A.A. released an update via Twitter.

"Update 3: The FAA is still working to fully restore the Notice to Air Missions system following an outage.

 

The FAA has ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures until 9 a.m. Eastern Time to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information"

*UPDATE 7:40 AM: Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House Press Secretary, said there is no evidence that this is a cyberattack.

"The President has been briefed by the Secretary of Transportation this morning on the FAA system outage. There is no evidence of a cyberattack at this point, but the President directed DOT to conduct a full investigation into the causes. The FAA will provide regular updates."

*UPDATE 8:13 AM: All flights currently in the sky are safe to land.

The FAA provided another update on the ongoing system crash.

"All flights currently in the sky are safe to land. Pilots check the NOTAM system before they fly. A Notice to Air Missions alerts pilots about closed runways, equipment outages, and other potential hazards along a flight route or at a location that could affect the flight."

It also looks like the FAA is making progress in restoring its Notice to Air Missions system following their overnight outage.

They expect departures to resume at other airports, including the Buffalo Niagara Airport, at 9 a.m. ET.

*UPDATE 8:51 AM: Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually.

"Update 5: Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually across the U.S. following an overnight outage to the Notice to Air Missions system that provides safety info to flight crews. The ground stop has been lifted.

 

We continue to look into the cause of the initial problem."

The FAA is still unsure at this time what the initial cause of what the system crash was.