US airports rumble back to life after FAA computer outage

Over 5,400 flights delayed, another 900 cancelled due to snag

- JAMIE FREED, RAJESH KUMAR SINGH & DAVID SHEPARDSON

US FLIGHTS WERE slowly beginning to resume departures and a ground stop was lifted after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) scrambled to fix a system outage overnight that had forced a halt to all US departing flights.

The cause of the problem with a pilot-alerting system, which delayed thousands of flights in the United States, was unclear, but US officials said they had so far found no evidence of a cyberattack.

The outage occurred at a historically slow time for US travel after the December holiday travel season, but airlines have said demand remains strong as travel continues to recover to near pre-pandemic levels.