Nationwide U.S. Flight Ground Stop Caused by 'Overload of Aging Equipment'... Flights Resume After Four Hours (2nd Update)

[Financial News] The FAA lifted its nationwide suspension of aircraft takeoffs after about four hours. U.S. authorities confirmed that the incident stemmed from an overload of aging air traffic control equipment, not an external cyberattack.
According to foreign media reports on the 13th (local time), U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said an unstable situation had occurred at radar and communications control facilities.
The system was shut down after an excessive volume of data flooded the routers, causing discrepancies in the information. He said that although at least 3,500 aircraft were in flight at the time, steps were taken to ensure they landed safely.
Markwayne Mullin, the secretary of homeland security, also said, “We believe this was a communications failure, and there are no signs of a malicious attack.”
A nationwide halt to takeoffs in the United States is rare, with few precedents beyond the September 11 attacks in 2001 and the NOTAM system outage in January 2023.
FlightAware said more than 6,600 flights had been canceled as a result of the incident, according to its tally. With nearly 1,000 flights on the 14th already canceled and widespread cancellations and delays affecting weekend flights as well, airports were thrown into chaos by stranded travelers. Cirium, an aviation information provider, said that as of 5:50 p.m. that day, about 500 flights had returned to their departure airports and more than 100 had diverted to other airports.
The U.S. government has urged Congress to approve about $50 billion (approximately 67 trillion won) in emergency funding as it works to contain the situation and prevent a recurrence at its root. Secretary Mullin said, “The air traffic control system we are using is unbelievably outdated,” and “It will take some time to address the fallout from this incident.”

[email protected] Jeon Min-kyung Reporter