Flights grounded – latest: Corrupted file blamed for 10,000 US plane delays
Flights beginning to resume following widespread disruption
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said a corrupted database file was the reason behind the nationwide grounding of nearly 10,000 flights for the first time in two decades.
Preliminary findings traced the cause to a “damaged database file”, ruling out earlier speculation of a cyberattack. The same file reportedly corrupted both the main system and its backup.
An engineer “replaced one file with another” without realising the mistake, a senior official briefed on the internal review told ABC News.
“It was an honest mistake that cost the country millions.”
A key system used to notify pilots and ground staff of hazards and alerts suffered a “major failure” on Tuesday night. The fault lay with the NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) system, which keeps pilots and other airport staff updated about aviation hazards and airport facilities.
The FAA was able to lift the ground stop at around 9am on the East Coast, but the damage had been done to schedules for the day.
Most airlines are waiving fees for passengers to rebook travel.
FAA system outage causes chaos with thousands of flight delays: ‘Haven’t seen a ground stop like this since 9/11’
Corrupted file blamed for taking down US flight system and causing 10,000 plane delays or cancellations
Flight delayed or cancelled due to the FAA system outage? Experts share advice
Canada suffers same mysterious air system outage as US, delaying more flights
What to do if your flight was cancelled or delayed
Thousands of travelers were stranded at US airports on Wednesday due to an hours-long computer outage at the Federal Aviation Administration.
More than 1,000 US flights were cancelled early in the day and almost 7,000 flights were delayed, according to the tracking site FlightAware. That number continued to climb in the afternoon.
Staying calm and knowing your rights can go a long way if your flight plans are disrupted, experts say.
Here’s some of their advice for dealing with a flight delay or cancellation:
Flight delayed or cancelled due to the FAA system outage? Experts share advice
Thousands of travelers were stranded at US airports due to an hours-long computer outage
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments