California Flights Resume After FAA Outage Prompts Nationwide Ground Stop

CALIFORNIA — Flights at airports across California are returning to normal after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop Wednesday following an outage in a crucial government system.

Nationwide, nearly 6,500 flights were delayed and more than 1,000 had been canceled by 8:15 a.m. PT. While most delays were concentrated along the East Coast, several California airports were still reporting delays and cancellations Wednesday morning.

Flights out of Los Angeles International Airport, Hollywood Burbank Airport, Long Beach Airport and others in Southern California were affected by the computer outage.

Around 7:30 a.m., about 83 flights — or 9 percent of all flights — were delayed at the San Francisco International Airport, according to a spokesperson. Twenty flights had been canceled, which the spokesperson said was "normal."

The FAA ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures early Wednesday following an outage to its Notice to Air Missions system. The order caused a ripple effect across the country, prompting thousands of delays and hundreds of cancellations at airports nationwide.

• RELATED: Domestic U.S. Flights Resuming, Ground Stop Lifted After FAA Outage

The Notice to Air Missions system provides safety information to flight crews. The FAA said it ordered the pause to allow it time to validate the integrity of flight and safety information.

More than 21,000 flights were scheduled to take off in the United States today, mostly domestic trips, and about 1,840 international flights were expected to fly to the U.S., according to aviation data firm Cirium.

President Joe Biden was briefed on the outage Wednesday morning. The White House said initially there was no evidence of a cyberattack, and the Department of Transportation was ordered to investigate the cause of the disruption.

The pause was ordered around 4:20 a.m. PT. The FAA lifted the ground stop shortly before 6 a.m.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said he had directed an "after-action process" to learn the root cause of the outage and recommend the next steps.

Julia Macpherson was on a flight from Sydney to Los Angeles on Wednesday when she learned of possible delays.

"As I was up in the air I got news from my friend who was also traveling overseas that there was a power outage," Macpherson told the Los Angeles Times.

By 8 a.m., the FAA was reporting general arrival and departure delays of 15 minutes or less at all major California airports.

Other airports reporting delays and cancellations as of 8 a.m. include:

Los Angeles International Airport

• Delays: 111
• Cancellations: 8

San Diego International Airport

• Delays: 123
• Cancellations: 25

Oakland International Airport:

• Delays: 70
• Cancellations: 18

San Jose International Airport

• Delays: 92
• Cancellations: 6

Sacramento International Airport

• Delays: 80
• Cancellations: 17

For real-time information on delays and cancellations at California airports, check FlightAware.com.

The Associated Press and City News Service contributed to this report.