Rick Scott Calls on FAA, Pete Buttigieg for ‘FULL Briefing’ on Grounded Flights Nationwide

By Michelle Vecerina

Published Jan. 11, 2023, 12:24 p.m. ET | Updated Jan. 11, 2023

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott speaking with attendees at the 2021 Student Action Summit hosted by Turning Point USA at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Fla. (Gage Skidmore)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (FLV) – U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-FL, said he “expects” the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to provide a “FULL briefing” after a nationwide technical outage caused mass flight cancellations and delays.

The FAA is still working to fully restore the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system following an outage, according to their most recent update. The NOTAM system sends alerts to pilots to let them know of conditions that could affect the safety of their flights. The failure of the FAA’s NOTAM system is what caused the travel chaos across the U.S.

More than 1,000 flights were canceled in the U.S., and more than 6,700 flights in the country were delayed, as of Wednesday morning.

“Safety is always the top priority, but leaving millions of travelers stranded and delayed to their destinations is not okay,” Scott said.

“I expect @FAANews and @SecretaryPete to immediately provide a FULL briefing to Congress on what happened and how they will ensure it NEVER happens again,” he continued.

Safety is always the top priority, but leaving millions of travelers stranded and delayed to their destinations is not okay.

I expect @FAANews and @SecretaryPete to immediately provide a FULL briefing to Congress on what happened and how they will ensure it NEVER happens again.
— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) January 11, 2023

FAA’s Wednesday morning statement said that the ground stop has been lifted and normal aircraft operations are “resuming gradually” across the U.S.

The agency is continuing to look into the cause of the initial problem.

Update 5: Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually across the U.S. following an overnight outage to the Notice to Air Missions system that provides safety info to flight crews. The ground stop has been lifted.

We continue to look into the cause of the initial problem
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023

Buttigieg said he has “directed an after-action process” to determine the cause of the overnight outage.

FAA has determined that the safety system affected by the overnight outage is fully restored, and the nationwide ground stop will be lifted effective immediately. I have directed an after-action process to determine root causes and recommend next steps.
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) January 11, 2023

Florida Chief Financial Officer and State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis said Buttigieg “should go back on paternity leave.”