Flights across the United States resumed Wednesday morning, several hours after the Federal Aviation Administration, (FAA) suffered a computer outage that forced it to halt all departures nationwide while it scrambled to resolve the issue.
The FAA said the crippling delays that affected thousands of flights appear to have been caused by a problem in the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system, which sends pilots vital information they need to fly.
Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary said Investigators have seen no evidence of a cyberattack.
President Joe Biden ordered an investigation after he was briefed on the situation by Pete Buttigieg, Transportation Secretary.
Maria Cantwell, who heads the Senate Commerce Committee that oversees the FAA, said they too will look into the matter.
“The number one priority is safety,” Cantwell said in a statement. “As the Committee prepares for FAA reauthorization legislation, we will be looking into what caused this outage and how redundancy plays a role in preventing future outages. The public needs a resilient air transportation system.”
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Ted Cruz of Texas, the top Republican on that committee, said the “FAA’s inability to keep an important safety system up and running is completely unacceptable and just the latest example of dysfunction within the Department of Transportation.”
The delays came just weeks after Southwest Airlines caused travel chaos by canceling more than 2,500 of its flights during the Christmas season.
