Update: FAA Lifts Halt on Domestic Travel; Biden Calls For Investigation Into Notice to Air Missions System Failure

Update: The Federal Aviation Administration at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday lifted its grounding order affecting domestic departures. The federal authority had grounded flights after an outage of the Notice to Air Missions system, which is used to alert pilots and crew.

President Biden has called for an investigation into the matter, according to Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

Original Story: The FAA announced in a statement Wednesday morning that it has ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures until 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information.

The FAA said it is still working to fully restore the Notice to Air Missions system following an outage. It said “operations across the National Airspace System are affected,” and that it was performing final checks to get the system back in operation.

Flights to and from the Virgin Islands have been delayed, not canceled, according to V.I. Port Authority Executive Director Carlton Dowe. "So far no cancellations but delays," he told the Consortium Wednesday.

Mr. Dowe said some inter-island travel continued while others saw delays. He said Cape Air halted flights in compliance with the FAA order, however travel through Seaborne was not interrupted. The VIPA executive director said Cape Air's move to delay flights may be tied to the carrier's headquarters in Boston, which is complying with the FAA's domestic order.