FAA Paused U.S. Departures After Outage, but Pilots Kept Contact Through Backup Channels
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Nov 14
FAA Paused U.S. Departures After Outage, but Pilots Kept Contact Through Backup Channels
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Nov 14
Summary
Friday’s FAA communications outage forced a nationwide pause in departing flights, but Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said pilots and controllers still maintained intermittent contact.
Duffy said the disruption was not a total loss of communications or radar, allowing some controller-to-pilot exchanges to continue during the outage.
Voice radio remained the primary link, with backup and emergency frequencies available if main channels failed.
Text messages between controllers or dispatchers and pilots, plus satellite communications on many commercial jets, provided additional ways to reach aircraft.
Even in a full tower radio failure, aviation authorities can fall back on visual light signals that pilots acknowledge by rocking wings or flashing aircraft lights.