Flights across the U.S. grounded after FAA experiences computer outage

Flights across the United States were grounded Wednesday morning after the Federal Aviation Administration said it experienced a computer outage.

All flights in the U.S. were grounded following the incident, a source with knowledge of the situation told NBC News. The FAA said later Wednesday morning it had ordered all airlines to pause domestic departures until 9 a.m. ET.

The FAA had said in a notice on its website that its Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system had “failed” Wednesday morning. A NOTAM is a notice containing information essential to workers involved in flight operations.

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More than 1,200 flights within, into and out of the U.S. were delayed as of around 7 a.m. Wednesday morning, according to online flight tracker FlightAware. Just over 100 flights were listed as cancelled.

“Operations across the National Airspace System are affected,” the FAA said in a statement.

In an update posted to Twitter just before 7:20 a.m., the FAA said it had ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures until 9 a.m. ET “to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information.”

It said it was still working to fully restore the NOTAM system following the outage.

“We are performing final validation checks and repopulating the system now,” it said in an earlier tweet just before 7 a.m.

“While some functions are beginning to come back on line, National Airspace System operations remain limited,” it said.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a tweet that he had “been in touch with FAA this morning about an outage affecting a key system for providing safety information to pilots.”

“FAA is working to resolve this issue swiftly and safely so that air traffic can resume normal operations, and will continue to provide updates,” he said.

United Airlines said in a tweet it had temporarily delayed all domestic flights and would issue an update when it learned more from the FAA about the situation.

Southwest Airlines said it was “closely monitoring” the situation and said it “may impact the start of operations” Wednesday.

The news came after a number of social media users said they had been impacted by the situation.

“An FAA system outage is causing ground stops at AUS and other airports across the country,” the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport said in a tweet.

“Arriving & departing passengers can expect delays this morning & through the day,” it said, adding: “Please stay in contact with your airline & check your flight status before heading to AUS.”

A number of airports outside the U.S. said operations were continuing as normal.

“As far as we are aware, we are still operating to/from the U.S. at the moment,” a spokesperson for Gatwick Airport in London said.

A spokesperson for the Frankfurt Airport in Germany said the FAA outage had not affected its operations.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Sara Mhaidli contributed.