The US Federal Aviation Administration lifted a nationwide ground stop for all aircraft at airports across the country. The suspension lasted for about four and a half hours.
The US Department of Homeland Security cited a communication issue as a reason for the measure. It said there was no indication of a possible attack on the United States at this stage. But confusion continues at airports.
The FAA ordered a nationwide ground stop due to what it said were extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety shortly before 4 p.m. US Eastern Time on Friday. It fully lifted the measures at 8:19 p.m. the same day.
Flightradar24 shows more than 8,000 flights have been canceled so far.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters in the White House that the incident had no connection with an outage at IT giant Microsoft. He said there is no evidence suggesting a cyberattack and the safety of US citizens was not threatened.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said they suspended the system because communication equipment was overloaded. He added the failure happened because the equipment was old.
Source: www3.nhk.or.jp
