Paris flights to North America delayed as US aviation safety system crashes: Update
Paris' international airports have experienced flight delays due to a US Federal Aviation Administration system failure that has affected international flights into North America. Latest reports say air traffic to the US is slowly returning to normal.
Issued on:
UPDATE 17h00 UT:
US flights are slowly resuming departures and a ground stop was lifted after the Federal Aviation Administration scrambled to fix an overnight system failure that had forced a halt to all departing flights.
More than 6,000 flights were delayed and nearly 1,000 canceled according to the FlightAware website.
FAA officials say it will take hours to recover from the grounding and the numbers are still rising.
The cause of the problem with the NOTAM pilot-alerting system, which delayed thousands of flights over North America remains unclear, but US officials say they have so far found no evidence of a cyberattack.
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.
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023
We continue to look into the cause of the initial problem
Delays in outbound flights from Paris
Earlier this Wednesday, a spokesperson for Aeroports de Paris announced, "We have been informed of a technical incident. At this stage there have been no flight cancellations but some delays are to be expected.
ADP operates Paris Charles de Gaulle and Orly international airports in the French capital.
Meanwhile, Air France said the airline is currently operating its flight schedule to and from the United States as normal, but continues to monitor the situation closely.
This comes as US flights were grounded or delayed on Wednesday as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) scrambled to fix a system outage, with passengers told to check with airlines for updates.
Flights to US airports have been groundstopped by the FAA until at least 09:30 ET (1430 UTC). This means any flight not in the air already will not be allowed to depart. Image: flights over US now compared to same time last week. About 700 fewer flights airborne now. pic.twitter.com/LmXFlq0LnD
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) January 11, 2023
US flights grounded
The FAA said it had ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures until 1400 UT to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information.
Flights already in the air were allowed to continue to their destinations.
The FAA said it was working to restore a system that alerts pilots to hazards and changes to airport facilities and procedures that had stopped processing updated information.
"The FAA is still working to fully restore the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system following an outage.
"While some functions are beginning to come back on line, National Airspace System operations remain limited," the FAA said on Twitter.
Update 3: The FAA is still working to fully restore the Notice to Air Missions system following an outage.⁰⁰The 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.
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023
Hundreds of flights delayed
A total of 1,230 flights were delayed within, into or out of the United States as of 1219 UT, flight tracking website FlightAware showed, without citing reasons.
A NOTAM is a notice containing information essential to personnel concerned with flight operations, but not known far enough in advance to be publicised by other means.
As well as Air France, Germany's Lufthansa said they were continuing to operate flights to and from the United States.
A total of 21,464 flights are scheduled to depart from US airports this Wednesday with a carrying capacity of nearly 2.9 million passengers.
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