US air travel disruptions to persist into Sunday
Nearly all departing flights nationwide were grounded for almost five hours on Friday, the longest such halt since the Sept 11, 2001 attacks and one of the worst days in US aviation history.
The US air travel system is experiencing significant disruptions following a nationwide flight shutdown ordered by the FAA due to issues with air traffic communications. As of Saturday, airlines had cancelled over 5,300 flights and delayed nearly 6,300, according to FlightAware. The disruption, which began on Friday afternoon when air traffic control centers experienced instability, is attributed to a router installation issue at a remote facility by contractor L3Harris.
FAA head Bryan Bedford expects airline operations to largely return to normal by late Sunday, but the issue has stranded thousands of passengers at airports nationwide. The FAA, in collaboration with L3Harris, is investigating the cause of the problem to determine if it was due to incompetence or a faulty router.
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