US flights grounded for over four hours in worst stoppage since 9/11
The FAA imposed its longest nationwide ground stop since 2001. A legacy system overload disabled all air traffic control.
The US Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights Friday. A communication failure stopped every air traffic control centre.
The stoppage lasted more than four hours. The stoppage was the longest nationwide since 11 September 2001.
Nearly 8,000 flights were cancelled and more than 8,500 delayed. This left tens of thousands of passengers stranded.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a legacy analog telephone system became overloaded with data. This caused switches and routers to fail.
Duffy said the system needs a complete overhaul at an estimated cost of $50 billion. Homeland Security confirmed no cyber-attack or link to the Microsoft outage.
Sydney airport suspended US-bound flights during the stoppage.
- more than four hours
- Duration of stoppage
- nearly 8000
- Flights cancelled
- more than 8500
- Flights delayed
- 50 billion dollars
- Estimated overhaul cost
Why it mattersAging infrastructure threatens aviation safety. The system needs a complete overhaul at an estimated cost of $50 billion.
AustraliaAustralian travellers to the US faced cancellations and delays; Sydney airport suspended all US-bound flights during the stoppage.
✓ Claims checked against the source and corrected before publish. checked 10 h ago
