The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a rare nationwide ground stop on Friday, halting all departing flights across the United States following a communications outage affecting the traffic control system.
Nationwide Ground Stop
The nationwide ground stop was issued “due to extraordinary circumstance and reasons for safety.”
Shortly before the nationwide order was issued, the FAA halted traffic in the Chicago area due to air traffic control issues.
The official advisory for the ground stop stated that “all departing traffic should remain ground stopped until further notice” and that the arrival of international flights will be managed on a case-by-case basis.
The FAA’s notice system that contains air traffic control system notices is currently unavailable, and previously posted notices have been erased.
Potential Causes of the Ground Stop
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the ground stop was due to a communication issue affecting air route traffic control centres and confirmed that the FAA is investigating the issue.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin confirmed that so far there are no signs that the communication issue was a deliberate threat to the United States. He said:
“We had no reason to believe that — as of right now, that this was a threat to the United States. … It’s just a telecommunications outage … everybody’s safe. There’s no reason to be concerned about your loved ones if they’re flying.”
Mullin said that investigators will look into whether the outage was linked to the FAA’s nationwide rollout of an artificial intelligence system to identify problems and reroute planes.
He added that Trump administration officials had yet to determine the cause of the outage, and cautioned that restoring operations could take some time to resolve. Mullin also said that there is no evidence linking the ground stop and the Microsoft Outlook outage and that there is no indication of a potential cyberattack.
Passengers Impacted by the Ground Stop
According to FlightAware, nearly 5,000 flights within the United States that were scheduled for Friday and nearly 800 flights scheduled for Saturday had been cancelled by 7:45 p.m. EST on Friday.
Cargo operations were also affected, including flights operated by freight carriers like FedEx and UPS.
At 8:26 p.m. EST, U.S. air traffic controllers were notified of the lifting of the ground stop, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.
This outage is the third nationwide ground stop in U.S. history. The first followed the terrorist attacks of 9/11 (Sept. 11, 2001), while the second occurred on Jan. 11, 2023 due to an outage in the FAA’s Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system temporarily halted domestic departures.
Do you know anyone who was affected by the nationwide ground stop? Let us know in the comments!
