Air paralysis in the United States: more than a thousand canceled flights and strong uncertainty

Air traffic in the United States was practically paralyzed by an incident in critical communication systems nationwide, international correspondent Alejandro Rincón revealed on MDZ Radio, from Brooklyn, New York. Beyond that, the authorities did not specify what is behind the failure or its nature.

The information adds that the federal government ruled out for the moment that it was a cyber attack, although no estimate was given as to how quickly the systems could be restored. In that sense, they defined it as an event still in development and with a serious impact at the national level.

In this context, more than a thousand flight cancellations have already been recorded, with the most affected terminals being New York, John F. Kennedy and La Guardia; followed by Chicago, Denver, San Francisco and Boston. JFK had 155 flights suspended and they estimated that the numbers could escalate exponentially as the hours went by.

“When the incident began, there were about 3,100 flights en route to different terminals in the country, and landings are being allowed progressively. In addition, some limited departures are authorized on a case-by-case basis,” explained the official, who explained that this would indicate that redundancy or backup systems are operating that sustain a minimum operation.

An aerial “paralysis”

Even so, Rincón spoke of an “almost total paralysis,” something that, he said, had not occurred since the attacks of September 11, 2001, except for a couple of subsequent incidents.

Regarding the causes, he mentioned that there were other recent incidents due to failures in infrastructure that is being updated or replaced. He also spoke about the possible adoption of artificial intelligence systems, something that he clarified is not confirmed. Everything is under investigation.

Meanwhile, Rincón said that the Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, indicated that the problems are in the internal communications of the radio frequencies reserved for air traffic.

Asked about a resumption schedule, the correspondent responded that at the moment there is none and that there is complete uncertainty. He said that in terminals like Houston he saw reports of passengers with increasingly longer waits, in which he anticipated a night of uncertainty for thousands and probably millions of travelers.

For its part, it was confirmed that delays in flight takeoffs to the United States were reported from Argentina. As reported on this portal, these departures are momentarily suspended until there are greater details about what is happening in the northern country.