A halt to departures across the United States lasting more than four hours disrupted LOT Polish Airlines services. Three return flights from Chicago, New York and Los Angeles subsequently took off for Warsaw, but the disruption also affected onward schedules for the airline’s Dreamliners. The longest delay reported by the carrier was four and a half hours.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) halted departures nationwide on Friday 13 November before lifting the restriction. According to the BBC, the suspension lasted more than four hours. Resuming departures did not, however, mean an immediate return to normal schedules.
Los Angeles flight faced the longest delay
On Saturday morning, 14 November, LOT spokesperson Krzysztof Moczulski told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that all three of the specified return flights to Warsaw had departed. According to RMF24’s account of his statement, flight LO4 from Chicago left eight minutes late, while LO27 from New York’s JFK airport departed 40 minutes behind schedule. Flight LO22 from Los Angeles faced a considerably longer delay of four hours and 30 minutes.
The spokesperson said the disruption had also affected subsequent flights operated by the same Boeing 787 Dreamliners. The statement quoted by RMF24 warned of possible delays of around two hours to two departures from Warsaw: LO65 to Bangkok and LO23 to Los Angeles. These were potential delays, rather than confirmed final departure times.
Heathrow services also affected
Passengers travelling from the UK also felt the effects of the US departure halt. The BBC reported cancellations and delays affecting some services from London Heathrow to the United States.
According to BBC and RMF24 reports, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy linked the failure to an overloaded, ageing air traffic control communications system. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no evidence of a cyberattack. These were explanations given by US officials, rather than findings from a completed independent investigation.
The departure of the three LOT aircraft confirmed that those particular services to Warsaw had resumed. It did not establish that the airline’s full schedule was back to normal, as the disruption also affected later flights operated by the delayed aircraft.
