The initial cause of the technical problem that led to the suspension of flights at all airports across the US has been identified. The deteriorating situation is reportedly due to old air traffic control systems being unable to handle the data load from new technology.
Modern.az reports that US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy and Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin provided this information at a briefing at the White House.
According to the ministers' statement, the old telecommunication equipment used in the air traffic control system was overloaded due to the volume of data coming from new technology. As a result, serious inconsistencies arose in route management and communication between dispatchers and aircraft.
US officials stated that measures are being taken to eliminate the problem and the system has been brought back into operation.
Flights suspended for 5 hours
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily suspended flights from all airports across the country on November 13 due to communication problems in air traffic control centers.
The restriction, which lasted approximately five hours, was later lifted. However, as a result of the crisis, thousands of flights were delayed and canceled, and hundreds of planes were diverted to other airports. The incident affected more than one million passengers.
It should be noted that this is the second time that flights have been suspended across the country in the US since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The previous such incident was recorded in January 2023, when a malfunction occurred in the FAA's computer system that sends flight safety notifications to pilots.
