U.S. flight departures began resuming early Wednesday after an overnight outage to a key air-traffic system prompted authorities to ground planes nationwide.
The Federal Aviation Administration said normal air traffic operations were gradually returning as it lifted the ground stop shortly before 9 a.m. Eastern time. The disruption stemmed from problems with the Notice to Air Missions system, or Notam, which conveys advisory information essential for flight operations.
The dramatic system disruption is one of the most significant in recent decades for the FAA and comes after a year of tests of the nation’s air system as the return from COVID-19 stressed airlines and air-traffic operations.
