U.S. authorities have ordered this Friday the suspension of all departures of flights at the country’s airports, citing "extraordinary circumstances and reasons of security," so that aircraft with scheduled departure must remain on the ground until further notice.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA, for its English-language acronym) has detailed in an official notice that the measure responds to "extraordinary circumstances and reasons of security." "All departure traffic must remain on the ground until further notice," the agency said, which for now has not offered additional information.
Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, indicated in a brief message shared on his social media that it is a "communication problem that affects all route air traffic control centers." In this regard, he has promised that it will provide data "immediately" once there is more clarity, since FAA technicians are already analyzing "the problem."
As a direct consequence of this order, nearly 7,000 flights have been delayed or canceled, according to the FlightAware tracking platform. However, shortly before the FAA issued its national alert, Chicago’s two main airports, O'Hare International Airport and Midway International Airport, were already listed under a takeoff suspension order due to a "malfunction in the equipment," as NBC television network reported.
Sources close to the investigation, cited by CNN, have ruled out for now that it is a cyberattack.
This is the third time the FAA has ordered the shutdown of all flights on a national scale. The first was on September 11, 2001, after Al Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Centr’s Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon. The second occurred on January 11, 2023, following a failure in the alert system intended to inform pilots about safety incidents.
Flights suspended from Europe to the United States
At the same time, the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) has decided this Friday to suspend flights that depart from the IFPZ zone (Eurocontrol member states) with destination to the United States, at the request of the FAA.
The restriction will apply between 22:00 UTC (one hour less than in Spain) on November 13 and 05:00 UTC on November 14.
Eurocontrol’s operations center has indicated that it “is keeping a close watch on the situation” and that it “will provide updates as new developments emerge.”