Many may not realize the magnitude of the disaster that struck the aviation sector in the United States due to what seems to be merely a "technical outage" lasting 120 minutes. However, the severity of the event is evident in the statements of some officials and pilots, who emphasized the similarities between what is happening now and what occurred on September 11, 2001.
Michael Santoro, Vice President of the Pilots Association at Southwest Airlines, warned that "travelers will feel a massive impact" from the incident. He told Fox News, "The last time we grounded all planes was, and I hate to say it, on September 11. No planes are moving."
In West Virginia, the Kanawha County Commission issued a statement saying, "It is our judgment that we have not seen such a grounding of all aircraft since September 11. This is of utmost importance." It added, "We urge the individuals responsible for the NOTAM system to resolve this issue (quickly)," as reported by American channel WSAZ.
Pilots also expressed concern about the incident, according to a group of Fox News correspondents. One stated, "All U.S. international flights are not going anywhere, and we have no indication of when that will change." The correspondent noted, "In my conversations with pilots, they said they have never seen such a type of stoppage (in aviation) due to such a problem."
A technical failure affecting the Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday led to the disruption of all flights across the United States, causing delays and cancellations. More than 4,000 flights have been affected so far due to the outage that overshadowed the country.
