On Wednesday, the aviation industry was hit with a major blow as over 9,000 flights into, out of, or within the United States were postponed due to a temporary malfunction in the Federal Aviation Administration’s crucial pilot-alert system. Unfortunately, more than 1,300 flights were also canceled. The glitch caused chaos at airports as planes were unable to take off, leaving many passengers stranded for hours.
The White House clarified that there was no indication that the issue was the result of a cyberattack. Airlines were hopeful that they would be able to resume normal operations on Thursday, but the damage was already done. As of early Thursday morning, 511 U.S. flights had been delayed and 63 had been canceled, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. The disruption caused by this glitch was compared to the shutdown of air traffic after the 9/11 terror attacks.
Despite the efforts made to restore normal operations, the aftermath of this temporary outage was still felt, causing inconvenience for travelers and a significant impact on the aviation industry.