BREAKING: All US Flights Grounded - FAA Computer Outage
Read, Share, & Subscribe - SherlocExposes.com
What we’re working on in the SherlocExposes.com newsroom this morning today:
SUPPLEMENTAL, 5:15 pm ET:
Canadian Air Traffic Control System has also experienced an outage":
SUPPLEMENTAL, 2:35 pm ET:
Royal Mail in the UK is also experiencing delays due to a “cyber incident”:
Royal Mail has been hit by a “cyber incident” that left the UK’s postal service unable to send parcels and letters overseas.
Warning of “severe disruption” and advising customers not to post items with an international destination, Royal Mail said on Wednesday that it had notified security services. It declined to say whether hackers were involved.
The National Cyber Security Centre, which advises UK companies on combating cybercrime, said it was working with the National Crime Agency to understand the impact. Royal Mail, whose services have been hit in recent months by strike action, said international packages already in transit may be delayed.
“We would like to sincerely apologise to impacted customers,” the company said. “The cyber incident has impacted our international dispatch documentation system,” Royal Mail said.
“This produces dispatch notes for outgoing, export mail for transport and for foreign posts so that they can receive our traffic.”
Hanah Darley, head of threat research at cybersecurity group Darktrace, warned it could take weeks to restore Royal Mail’s systems, depending on the severity of the incident. “The information cyber attackers gain from having been on the inside of an organisation’s digital infrastructure can leave the victim organisation vulnerable to further breaches in the future,” she added.
UPDATE, 11:20 am ET:
“The world’s largest aircraft fleet was grounded for hours by a cascading outage in a government system that delayed or cancelled thousands of flights across the U.S. on Wednesday.
The White House initially said that there was no evidence of a cyberattack behind the outage that ruined travel plans for millions of passengers. President Joe Biden said Wednesday morning that he’s directed the Department of Transportation to investigate.
Whatever the cause, the outage revealed how dependent the world’s largest economy is on air travel, and how dependent air travel is on an antiquated computer system called the Notice to Air Missions System, or NOTAM.
Before commencing a flight, pilots are required to consult NOTAMs, which list potential adverse impacts on flights, from runway construction to the potential for icing. The system used to be telephone-based, with pilots calling dedicated flight service stations for the information, but has moved online.
The NOTAM system broke down late Tuesday, leading to more than 1,000 flight cancellations and more than 6,000 delayed flights by 11 a.m. Wednesday, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
The chaos is expected to grow as backups compound. More than 21,000 flights were scheduled to take off in the U.S. today, mostly domestic trips, and about 1,840 international flights expected to fly to the U.S., according to aviation data firm Cirium.
Longtime aviation insiders could not recall an outage of such magnitude caused by a technology breakdown. Some compared it to the nationwide shutdown of airspace after the terror attacks of September 2001.
‘Periodically there have been local issues here or there, but this is pretty significant historically,’ said Tim Campbell, a former senior vice president of air operations at American Airlines and now a consultant in Minneapolis.
Campbell said there has long been concern about the Federal Aviation Administration’s technology, and not just the NOTAM system.
‘So much of their systems are old mainframe systems that are generally reliable but they are out of date,’” he said.
UPDATE, 9:05 am ET:
“The Federal Aviation Administration is lifting a ground stop on flights across the U.S. following a computer outage early Wednesday that resulted in thousands of delays quickly cascading through the system at airports nationwide.
Earlier in the morning the FAA ordered all U.S. flights to delay departures until at least 9 a.m. Eastern. Due to heavy congestion, the FAA cleared flights to depart at Newark Liberty and Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson airports. The agency said that normal air traffic operations were resuming gradually across the U.S. following the outage.”
“A computer outage at the Federal Aviation Administration brought flights to a standstill across the U.S. on Wednesday, with hundreds of delays quickly cascading through the system at airports nationwide.
The FAA ordered all U.S. flights to delay departures until at least 9 a.m. Eastern, though airlines said they were aware of the situation and had already begun grounding flights.
Delays and cancellations accelerated rapidly, with more than 3,700 stuck on the ground around 8:30 a.m. Eastern, more than all the delayed flights for the entirety of the previous day, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. More than 550 have been cancelled, and that number was ticking higher quickly.
Those numbers are likely to grow, and the groundings impact almost all aircraft, including shipping and passenger flights.
While the White House initially said that there is no evidence of a cyberattack, President Joe Biden said ‘we don’t know’ and told reporters he’s directed the Department of Transportation to investigate the cause of the disruption.
President Joe Biden addressed the FAA issue Wednesday before leaving the White House to accompany his wife to a medical procedure at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside of Washington. He said he had just been briefed by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who told him they still had not identified what went wrong.
‘I just spoke to Buttigieg. They don’t know what the cause is. But I was on the phone with him about 10 minutes,’ Biden said. “I told him to report directly to me when they find out.
Air traffic can still land safely, just not take off right now. We don’t know what the cause of it is.’”
We will continue to provide updates.
James Wesley, Rawles, publisher of SurvivalBlog.com has put together a “bookshelf” list of key things you should have. CLICK HERE to access the list.
Plus a recap of the 50 things you should have handy to barter.
Share this email with everyone you know. Sign up for a free or paid subscription. Paid members will receive our in-depth solutions.
Ripped From The Headlines is your daily digest of what’s happening in the world. We help you to understand what it means, why you should care, and what you should do.
Have a tip on a story, case, or issue that needs to be covered? Email us: asksherloc@protonmail.com. Confidentially assured.