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Thousands of delays across US after FAA system failure grounds flights

Air travelers found themselves on the receiving end of the worst national flight shutdown since 9/11 early Wednesday after a nationwide Federal Aviation Administration system failure snarled travel plans and caused travel chaos.

The FAA reported an outage with the Notice to Air Missions, or NOTAM — a critical system that relays important information to pilots and airports.

“The FAA is working to restore its Notice to Air Missions System” the agency told The Post in an email early Wednesday.

“Operations across the National Airspace System are affected.”

FAA tweeted that the ground stop was lifted shortly before 9 a.m., but flyers continued to reel from cascading impacts throughout the day. Nearly 8000 flights were delayed within, into, or out of the US as of 2 p.m., according to flight tracking website FlightAware.

More than 2,900 flights were canceled, with New York’s LaGuardia Airport and Washington’s National Airport at the top of the pack with around six dozen cancellations each. A ground stop remained in place at Denver International Airport.

Planes wait in a line for take-off at LaGuardia Airport AP

Waiting at LaGuardia, Julie Farr, 48, told The Post she was in a race against time to see her 12-year-old daughter, Madeline, perform in a choral concert at 7 p.m. in Rochester, New York, after attending a work conference in Miami.

“I left a conference early just so I could make the concert in time,” Farr said. “It’s like ‘The Christmas Chronicles’ when Santa walks into the terminal and all the flights are delayed. My daughter is a really good vocalist and works very hard. I’m really trying to make it to the concert.”

This map shows the flights stopped at New York area airports. Flightradar24/AFP via Getty Imag

It isn’t clear how many of the delays were caused by the system failure.

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Travelers took to Twitter to complain about the chaos after more than 400 flights were delayed within, into or out of the US as of 5:30 a.m.
Travelers took to Twitter to complain about the chaos after more than 400 flights were delayed within, into or out of the US as of 5:30 a.m.AP
An announcement made that Operations across the National Airspace System were affected.
An announcement was made that operations across the National Airspace System were affected. AP
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The NOTAM system relays information that is “essential to personnel concerned with flight operations,” according to the FAA.

Information includes important communications such as runway closures, general bird hazard warnings, or low-altitude construction obstacles.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a tweet early Wednesday that President Biden had been briefed by the Secretary of Transportation on the outage.

“There is no evidence of a cyberattack at this point, but the President directed DOT to conduct a full investigation into the causes,” she stressed.

The agency said the FAA is working to restore its Notice to Air Missions System. SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tweeted: ” I have been in touch with FAA this morning about an outage affecting a key system for providing safety information to pilots. FAA is working to resolve this issue swiftly and safely so that air traffic can resume normal operations, and will continue to provide updates.”

Another LaGuardia traveler, Lauren Serling, 33, of Rockville Centre, was traveling to Nashville, Tennessee, so her two-year-old son could have expert neurosurgery on a nerve in his spine.

“It would have been nice to settle into Nashville and do something nice for the family before the surgery, like go to the zoo. Instead, we’ve spent our day in the airport,” she said. “This is the icing on the cake for what was already going to be a terrible week for our family.

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A traveler looks at a flight board with delays and cancellations at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
A traveler looks at a flight board with delays and cancellations at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.AP
People wait at the Denver International Airport, as flights were grounded after FAA system outage.
People wait at the Denver International Airport after flights were grounded for a FAA system outage.Chris Wicklund via REUTERS
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Travelers wait in the terminal as an Alaska Airlines plane sits at a gate at Los Angeles International Airport.
Travelers wait in the terminal as an Alaska Airlines plane sits at a gate at Los Angeles International Airport.AFP via Getty Images
A video board shows flight delays and cancellations at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
A video board shows flight delays and cancellations at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.AP
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Meanwhile, many travelers took to Twitter to complain about the chaos, including some passengers at New York’s LaGuardia Airport.

“Stuck at La Guardia trying to get to Cartagena, (Colombia). Only 3 hours sleep for this 6a flight,” one would-be passenger fumed.

“Nationwide FAA computer outage has grounded flights this morning! Here’s hoping we get to Disney!” another tweeted.

“The pilot of my @united flight just informed us there is a nation wide outage of FAA computer systems. It’s been down since midnight and forcing a stop to all air travel. Lots of stranded passengers and missed connections,” a third wrote.

NOTAMs were previously called Notices to Air Men, but the federal agency adopted the gender-neutral terminology in 2021.