An aging system that may not have withstood the strain of technological upgrades. This is the possible explanation behind the malfunction that halted flight departures across the United States for roughly four hours.
According to initial indications from the US government, the problem stemmed from a data overload in the systems managed by routers, which in turn affected the radio communications used for air traffic control.
The upgrades appear to have overwhelmed the existing infrastructure of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The full sequence of events has yet to be clarified in detail.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no evidence of a cyberattack, nor any indication of a link to the recent Microsoft service outages or to artificial intelligence-related activity.
As a precaution, the FAA had ordered an immediate halt to departures. At the request of US authorities, Eurocontrol also suspended takeoffs bound for the United States from its 42 member countries, including Italy.
Before authorizing flights to resume, the agency said it had verified the stability of its systems. Lifting the halt, however, did not erase the fallout for airlines and passengers.
According to data from FlightRadar24 and FlightAware, more than 6,600 flights were cancelled and over 8,600 delayed on Friday. For Saturday, November 14, around 1,800 cancellations had already been recorded.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has asked Congress for $50 billion to modernize the infrastructure, while acknowledging he could not guarantee that a similar disruption would not happen again.
A full return to normal operations will take time. The FAA is advising passengers to contact their airline to check their flight status.
