A technical failure in the air-traffic-control communication system temporarily suspended take-offs and landings at airports in the state of São Paulo [1, 2, 3].

The disruption occurred at two of Brazil's busiest hubs, Congonhas and Guarulhos, creating significant delays for passengers and airline operators in the region [1, 2, 3].

Tiago Faierstein, director-president of the Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil (ANAC), said approximately 150 flights were affected by the outage [1]. Other reports indicate the number of impacted flights was more than 80 [3].

Reports on the timing of the event vary. CNN Brasil said the incident occurred on Tuesday, April 2, 2026 [1]. However, other outlets, including R7 and Panrotas, said the failure took place on Thursday, April 9, 2026 [2, 3].

The Força Aérea Brasileira (FAB) provided a specific time window for the disruption, saying the problem occurred between 9:30 a.m. and 10:06 a.m. [4]. This brief window of instability was enough to paralyze air traffic and cause congestion in neighboring regions, including Rio de Janeiro [4].

Details regarding the cause of the system failure remain inconsistent. Some reports attributed the outage to a general electrical failure [2]. Other accounts described a technical failure involving a suspected fire that led to the evacuation of the control tower [5].

Despite the conflicting data on the date and the exact number of flights, the event highlighted vulnerabilities in the communication infrastructure managing the high-volume airspace of São Paulo [1, 2, 3].

“Cerca de 150 voos foram afetados pela pane no sistema de controle de tráfego aéreo.”

The discrepancies in reporting dates and flight numbers suggest a chaotic initial response to the outage. The potential for a fire in a control tower—if verified—indicates a critical infrastructure risk that could lead to more prolonged closures of Brazil's most vital economic air corridors.