[DigitalToday reporter Chi-gyu Hwang] The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted a complete halt on domestic departures that lasted several hours, CNN reported on Nov. 13 local time. Even so, delays and cancellations are expected to continue for the time being.

According to the report, the FAA ordered the takeoff halt over safety concerns stemming from a communications outage. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy (숀 더피) pointed to aging air traffic control technology and overloaded routers as the cause. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin (마크웨인 멀린) said the FAA ran into problems while updating an aging system. He said it was not due to threats targeting the United States and was not related to the Microsoft outage that occurred this week.

Duffy warned that similar disruption would happen again unless the system is improved. He also repeatedly urged Congress to provide funding for improvements. He said a return to normal would be "slow" but added it would not affect Thanksgiving travel a few weeks later.

Flight-tracking website FlightAware said the takeoff halt led to the cancellation of more than 7,700 U.S. domestic and international flights on Nov. 13, with more than 8,000 delayed. More than 2,000 flights on Nov. 14 were also canceled.