More than 4,500 domestic flights were grounded on Wednesday due to an outage of the Federal Aviation Administration's technology used to send safety updates to pilots, writes The New York Times. The technology, called the Notice to Air Missions system, is instrumental in sharing information in the air and planning flights.
While the flights are up and running again, the cause of the outage is still unknown. There seems to be "no evidence of a cyberattack at this point," per White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, however, President Biden has called for an investigation by the Department of Transportation.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The FAA failure has caused mass disruptions, sparking frustration. "This is unheard of," remarked Michael McCormick, a former FAA official. "The action that the FAA had to take in grounding all the flights makes it even more significant." He added that this scale of grounding hasn't happened since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, writes The Washington Post.
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has announced that the DOT will look for the root causes of the failure.
-
Testosterone therapy in women highlights the lack of women’s health researchThe explainer There is no FDA-approved testosterone product for women
-
Magazine solutions - November 7, 2025Puzzles and Quizzes Issue - November 7, 2025
-
Magazine printables - November 7, 2025Puzzles and Quizzes Issue - November 7, 2025
-
Navy jet, helicopter crash half-hour apart off carrierSpeed Read A US Navy helicopter and a fighter jet both crashed in the same half-hour during separate operations
-
Bangladesh plane crash kills at least 25 childrenSpeed Read A fighter jet experienced a mechanical failure and crashed into a school in Dhaka
-
Hundreds die in Air India crash with 1 survivorSpeed Read The London-bound Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed soon after takeoff
-
Navy loses $60M fighter jet from aircraft carrier deckSpeed Read A fighter jet slipped off the deck of the USS Harry S. Truman and was lost at sea
-
New York helicopter crash kills family, pilotspeed read A sightseeing helicopter crashed into the Hudson River, killing a family of Spanish tourists
-
US jet fuel tanker, cargo ship collide off UK coastSpeed Read A cargo vessel carrying a toxic chemical collides with a US-military chartered oil tanker in the North Sea
-
Delta flight lands upside-down in Toronto, no deathsspeed read At least 18 people were injured in a flight that landed at Toronto's Pearson International Airport
-
Passenger jet, Blackhawk helicopter collide in DCSpeed Read An American Airlines flight with 64 people aboard collided with an Army helicopter, and no survivors have been found
