Air India flights land on time despite US air traffic control failure
Five Air India nonstop flights reached their US destinations as the US Air Traffic Control System Command Centre issued a ground stop.
Five Air India nonstop flights reached their US destinations on Friday after the US Air Traffic Control System Command Centre (ATCSCC) issued a ground stop. According to the Times of India, the outage occurred when air traffic control systems began to fail, prompting an advisory at 2.24 am on November 14 to manage inbound international flights on a case-by-case basis.
The Delhi-San Francisco (SFO) flight was approximately two hours from its destination when the advisory was issued. The Boeing 777 landed at SFO at 5 am because pilots in contact with Oakland control were not instructed to divert. Four other Air India flights travelling from Delhi and Mumbai to Newark (EWR) and JFK also reached their destinations as scheduled.
While the outbound flights arrived on time, one return flight from SFO to Delhi via Kolkata faced a delay of 2 hours and 40 minutes because of congestion at SFO. An official stated that all other flights departing from EWR and JFK operated on time, including departures on Saturday and Sunday night.
A pilot in New York reported that the communication problem caused frustration among hundreds of pilots and controllers. The ATCSCC advisory had ordered all airports to be ground stopped for safety reasons due to extraordinary circumstances.
This follows a previous issue on January 10, 2023, when the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) could not issue a notice to airmen. In that instance, the FAA identified the cause as files being unintentionally deleted by contract personnel during database synchronisation.
