The Smart Marty Sky Dispatch
The United States lifts the suspension of flights after four hours
The Federal Aviation Administration had ordered the stop due to “communication problems”
The United States lifted the suspension on all flights after about four hours of grounding nationwide, ending a period when air traffic was halted for safety reasons.
The FAA attributed the initial halt to a “communication problem,” later clarified as an overload in legacy systems that caused instability in the radar communications, according to statements from Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin indicated there was no confirmed evidence of a cyberattack, though the possibility was not ruled out as investigators continued to review the disruption.
Flight tracking data indicated a large number of cancellations this Friday evening, with reports of more than 6,000 flights canceled and a further 1,500 cancellations anticipated for Saturday.
The disruption followed a prior rollout of an artificial intelligence tool intended to assist air traffic controllers, which had been associated with earlier groundings when system problems affected communications, according to the reported sequence of events.