Air traffic control issues cause delays at South Florida airports
MIAMI - Federal Aviation Administration issues with air traffic control have been causing flight delays in South Florida on Monday.
The FAA temporarily paused flights to and from parts of South Florida because of a radar issue, the agency said in a statement Monday.
The pause lasted about an hour, the FAA said.
The issue affected the FAA's Miami and Jacksonville Air Route Traffic Control Centers.
During the issue, the FAA instituted departure delays for flights leaving airports in Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Fort Myers, Palm Beach and Miami.
"The FAA Miami Center is experiencing technical issues, and as a result, we are experiencing some delays," it said a tweet from Miami International Airport.
"If you are traveling this afternoon, please follow up with your airline for the latest information on your flight."
A Monday afternoon FAA advisory said both enroute air traffic control facilities in Miami and Jacksonville were "heavily impacted" by a "radar issue," but did not provide more detail on the reason.
The advisory says the facilities were previously at "ATC zero," an official declaration made "when it is determined that the facility is unable to safely provide published air traffic services."
Nationwide halt in January
On January 11, an FAA systemwide outage caused thousands of flight delays and cancellations across the United States.
The FAA briefly halted all domestic flight departures. It lifted the ground stop after it restored a system that provides pilots with pre-flight safety notices.
But by then, airlines continued to delay or cancel flights because of the ripple effects of the congestion.