4 Hours of Air Paralysis in America.. Chaos Crosses the Atlantic

Air takeoff operations in the United States resumed after a suspension lasting approximately four hours due to a malfunction in air traffic control systems, but the fallout extended to transatlantic flights, with delays and cancellations expected to continue on Saturday.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced on Friday evening that it had lifted the order suspending all takeoffs nationwide, after a communications failure at regional air traffic control centers disrupted air traffic, leading to the cancellation and delay of thousands of flights.

In Europe, Eurocontrol, the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation, warned that delays to flights bound for the United States could persist, urging airlines to issue notices regarding affected flights.

On Saturday morning, Eurocontrol removed a previous notice suspending flights from Europe to the United States, but the full extent of the expected disruptions to transatlantic services remained unclear.

Media reports indicated that some aircraft arriving at U.S. airports were forced to wait until gates became available for passenger disembarkation, while some flights departing from the United States to Europe managed to take off on Friday evening.

Officials in the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump attributed the suspension to problems with air traffic control and communications systems, which they described as “outdated” and “overloaded.”

This was the first U.S. flight suspension since January 2023, when a failure in a key FAA computer system halted flights, and the second since air traffic was suspended following the September 11, 2001, attacks.

According to the Associated Press, the Friday suspension caused hundreds of flights to be rerouted and disrupted the travel plans of large numbers of passengers, while the German news agency dpa reported that the crisis’s impact continued to affect European flights on Saturday morning.