Over 4,700 flights were cancelled and more than 10,000 delayed when a massive communications failure abruptly halted all airport operations across the United States, MBC 뉴스 reported.
The disruption began at 3:53 p.m. Eastern Time, causing all American aircraft to temporarily suspend takeoffs and landings and creating a cascading wave of chaos at airports worldwide, including in South Korea and Europe.
As airport air traffic control systems grew unstable, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a ground stop across all airports.
The United States government said that the suspension order was issued due to unstable communications between control centers handling takeoffs and landings and approach control facilities regulating flight flows within 50 miles of airports, affecting the neural network managing the country’s entire airspace. Authorities added that there were no signs of cyber or artificial intelligence attacks.
More than 800 flights were also diverted or rerouted. Stranded passengers expressed bewilderment at the sudden halts.
“내일 출발편을 예약했는데 실제론 모르죠.”
개리 리오타, bound for Charlotte, said.
Issued by the FAA just moments ago, ALL US airports are currently ground stopped. This means NO flights may depart for US airports. Flights already in the air will be allowed to land. This is related to an FAA equipment outage. pic.twitter.com/wgyuOXeF0k
“탑승구에 도착하자마자 운항 중단 조치를 알게 됐어요. ‘집에 가긴 글렀구나’ 싶었죠.”
크리스티나 아길레라, bound for Miami, said.
The suspension order was lifted 4 hours and 20 minutes later. Authorities explained that the communication instability occurred because of an overload between systems.
“새 장비와 기술이 제대로 맞물리지 못한 채 기존 시스템에 과부하를 일으켰습니다.”
마크웨인 멀린, 국토안보부 장관, said.
Attributing the root cause to a failure to replace equipment in a timely manner, he blamed Congress for failing to allocate sufficient budgets and said that 50 billion dollars, equivalent to approximately 66.82 trillion Korean won, is needed.
Earlier coverage: FAA Grounds All US Departures Due to Communication Outage
