Ground Stop Lifted, Normal Air Operations Resume Gradually, Says US FAA

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted the 'ground stop' that it had imposed after a system outage.

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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted the 'ground stop' that it had imposed after a system outage. The outage had brought flights to a standstill earlier on Wednesday.

What the FAA said: In a tweet, the FAA said, "Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually across the US following an overnight outage to the Notice to Air Missions [NOTAM] system that provides safety info to flight crews. The ground stop has been lifted."

How many flights were delayed/cancelled? According to the flight tracking website FlightAware, 1,230 flights within, into or out of the United States were delayed. An additional 91 flights within, into or out of the United States were also canceled. 

But what exactly happened? The FAA tweeted earlier that it was working to restore its Notice to Air Missions System (NOTAM).

According to the FAA, NOTAM is a notice containing information essential to personnel concerned with flight operations but not known far enough in advance to be publicized by other means.

Why NOTAM is essential...According to the FAA, NOTAMs indicate the real-time and abnormal status of the National Airspace System (NAS) impacting every user.

The agency said, "Pilots check the NOTAM system before they fly. A Notice to Air Missions alerts pilots about closed runways, equipment outages, and other potential hazards along a flight route or at a location that could affect the flight."