Unprecedented computer malfunction grounds flights across US, including at O'Hare, Midway
United Airlines, Southwest Airlines says issues impacting flight operations
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Airlines still playing catch up at the end of a frustrating day.
An FAA computer outage led to a temporary ground stop for all flight departures nationwide Wednesday morning, including at O'Hare and Midway airports. It's the first time all flight were grounded nationwide since September 11.
The FAA scrambled to restore its Notice to Air Missions system -- or NOTAM system-- which affects flights across the country, and ordered a ground stop for all flight departures. Shortly before 8 a.m., the FAA said normal operations were resuming.
"When the NOTAM system goes down, a pilot isn't going to have information to things like runway closures, taxiway closures. It could be something as simple as a crane in the vicinity of a runway doing some construction," said Dr. Ryan Phillips, chair and professor of aviation and transportation studies at Lewis University.
Computer failure reported with potential to impact airlines nationwide; all United flights delayed
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg discussing the issue Wednesday afternoon, saying it's still not clear what exactly caused the malfunction, but added that this should never happen.
The FAA first noticed communication issues with its technology system overnight before it completely shut down just before 7 a.m. morning for about an hour and a half.
"Craziness. People running, missing connecting flights, and it's been insane," said Ron Halczak, who arrived late to O'Hare.
At about 7:15 a.m., the FAA said it was making progress restoring its systems and departures were resuming in Newark and Atlanta.
Commercial pilot and aviation journalist Robert Mark explained the importance of the Notice to Air Missions system.
"It's a system that the FAA uses to inform pilots of safety issues...we depend on that system before we take off so that there are no surprises at the other end. Right now, that system is down," Mark said.
A senior official briefed on the FAA computer problems told ABC News a software issue developed late Tuesday night, and led to a "cascading" series of IT failures culminating in Wednesday's roughly 90-minute ground stop.
Chopper 7HD flew above both O'Hare and Midway, showing aircraft sitting on the tarmac.
The ground stop was lifted after two hours, but the damage was already done.
As of 11:25 a.m., O'Hare reported delays averaging 50 minutes with 108 flight cancellations. At Midway, delays were averaging 74 minutes with 51 flight cancellations.
Flight tracking website FlightAware showed more than 9,000 flight delays nationwide, with about 2,700 cancelations.
Debra and Mark Rawaski were at O'Hare trying to fly out to Puerto Rico Wednesday morning.
"Initially, it said it was on-time...and then as we're arriving in the taxi, delayed, delayed, delayed," Debra said.
"We're hoping to get out," Mark said. "If we get out fantastic. If we don't, then we wait. We got tomorrow or the day after. I am not worried about anything."
The morning was very frustrating for other travelers.
"Three hours from DC and then they left my bag there so I gotta wait for that to come in," said Nick Ramsey.
"It's been pretty frustrating I mean I can usually roll with the punches but with my job, I had one day to get home to see my kids and my wife and that's not gonna happen," said Lucas Foster, who was delayed from Richmond. "Now I've gotta go onto the next job it looks like."
All was quiet later Wednesday morning, but there was confusion when flights began to get delayed.
"United was very good about updating the app on delays. I had a pretty tight time between landing and getting to the meeting with the delay. It was a half hour, and then it was an hour, and at the hour point I decided to just call it a day and stay in Chicago, and the gate agent was very good about canceling me and getting a flight credit," said Mark Salisbury, whose flight to Minneapolis was disrupted.
Another air traveler heading to Cancun had her flight delayed about two and a half hours.
"Just delays and I don't want lost luggage, and I'm OK with waiting a little bit," Maria Hoth said. "It's just a delay and will still have fun when we get there and enjoy."
Midway was also hit hard, just weeks after the Southwest debacle.
Jeanine Lavoie and her son, Evan, were on their way to the airport when they found out about the FAA issues from her sister.
"She had said, 'did you hear about the FAA closures?' I had looked up an article on my phone while we were driving and said, 'well we looked right away at our flight, and it said it was going to be delayed by a couple of hours,' hoping that's worst case scenario," Lavoie said.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Southwest Airlines had its own issues at Midway, delaying and canceling hundreds of flights.
The Chicago Department of Aviation said in a statement, "The ground stop at O'Hare and Midway International Airports has been lifted following the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) system outage this morning. Residual delays or cancellations will likely continue throughout the day as a result of this morning's outage. The CDA continues to encourage travelers to check their flight status before leaving for either airport, and to download their airline's mobile app for available rebooking options."
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, "The President has been briefed by the Secretary of Transportation this morning on the FAA system outage. There is no evidence of a cyberattack at this point, but the President directed DOT to conduct a full investigation into the causes. The FAA will provide regular updates.
Small plane makes emergency landing in Bolingbrook along I-355
"My primary interest, now that we've gotten through the immediate disruptions of the morning is understanding exactly how this was possible and exactly what steps are needed to make sure it doesn't happen again," Buttigieg said.
Secretary Buttigieg says at this point there are no indications of this being a cyber-attack but he said everything will be investigated.
ABC News is reporting that the failures are the result of a "glitch" and not something intentional.
