FAA says nationwide ground stop is over after thousands of flights cancelled
· Yahoo NewsThe Federal Aviation Administration announced that the nationwide ground stop it issued earlier on Friday has been lifted.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said in a press conference Friday night that the airspace has reopened and some flights have started to take off, but warned that "it'll be slow."
"It's going to take us some time to unwind what happened this afternoon," he said.
Duffy said that "instability" in the radar communications at air traffic control centers began just after 3:30 p.m. ET. At the time, there were more than 3,500 planes in the air with the ground stop was issued, which he blamed on an "incredibly old air traffic system."
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"We have old switches, old routers, we use 1980s little copper lines," Duffy said. "It's an old system that went down. It went down everywhere. It got overloaded."
This is a breaking story. Follow for more updates. The original story is below.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a nationwide ground stop for all flights in the United States until further notice, "due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety."
This means that planes currently in the air may land, but those on the ground may not take off.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters Friday evening that there is currently no reason to suspect a national security threat is behind the communications outage affecting flights.
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"There's no reason for the public to be afraid or scared for their loved ones," Mullin said.
"This is not another 9/11," he added. "This is a telecommunications outage; this is much different."
Mullin said it would "take some time" to resolve the issue and that flights already in the air are being handled on a "case-by-case" basis.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote in a post on X, "The @FAAnews issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers. FAA technicians are investigating the issue. We will provide immediate updates as we have them."
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As of 6:45 p.m. ET, there were more than 10,000 flights delayed and more than 3,200 canceled within, into or out of the U.S., according to FlightAware.com, a live flight tracker website.
There were more than 30,000 departures and arrivals scheduled for the remainder of the day, according to flight tracking app Flighty, the New York Times reported.
Airlines for America, an industry trade organization representing major U.S. airlines, wrote in a post on X, "Safety is always our top priority." It added that it's in communication with the Department of Transportation and the FAA. The association encouraged travelers to be in touch with their airline carrier for "real-time updates."
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat from Illinois and a ranking member of an aviation subcommittee, called for an investigation into the nationwide ground stop.
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"The safety of our skies is built on redundancies," she wrote on X in response to Duffy's update. "Whatever led to the nationwide ground stop will warrant a thorough and complete investigation. As Aviation Subcommittee Ranking Member, I'll be demanding answers from the FAA."
The cause of Friday's widespread communication issue hasn't been confirmed.
"Do we know what has caused it yet?" Mullin said. "No, we're going to go through it. But I'm not going to make assumptions."
Citing multiple sources, CBS News reported Friday that "an update to the private communications network that connects America's air traffic control system caused the system to reboot, leading to a crash and a communications outage." It reported that the system is operated by L3Harris Technologies. The Wall Street Journal also reported that the outage appeared to be affecting the "telecommunications network overseen by L3Harris Technologies," which "handles crucial radio frequencies that air-traffic controllers use to communicate with pilots."
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Microsoft said that its own global outage — from which it is still recovering — did not appear to be a factor.
The National Weather Service told the New York Times that a viral screenshot claiming that its weather radar is down is "outdated," adding that it "has not experienced a disruption to its radar systems today."
Earlier this week, the FAA announced the nationwide rollout of a new $875 million artificial intelligence tool to help air-traffic controllers avoid delays. Called SMART — short for Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories — it was made by an AI company called ASI and had previously been in use at Washington, D.C., airports since late September.
On social media, ASI said "the current ground stop is not based on or a result of the SMART system, any product of ASI or our integration with FAA and ATC."
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A Yahoo reporter who was stuck on the tarmac on a United Airlines flight waiting to depart from Los Angeles International Airport passed along updates from the cabin. She said her pilot told passengers that "what happened was a communications outage that started in Kansas City Center, which is responsible for the airspace above the middle of America, and it spread nationwide."
She also said she received an update from United Airlines, which said, "Air traffic control is limiting the number of planes allowed to land and depart each hour in Los Angeles, affecting several flights. We're monitoring the situation closely to get you to your destination as soon as possible."
Around 7 p.m. ET, she said her flight "going over the Pacific" had departed. The New York Times has reported that "some international flights from the United States have been allowed to depart amid the ground stop." Alaska Airlines said in a statement that flights within Hawaii and Alaska have also been continuing, as have longer-distance flights to and from Honolulu.
Nationwide ground stops are pretty rare. The last time such an event occurred was in January 2023, when a pilot notification system went down. Before then, a nationwide ground stop was issued following the September 11, 2001, attacks.
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Last year Congress approved $12.5 billion to overhaul the outdated technology that air traffic controllers rely on, including old copper wires and radio systems. On social media, the GOP-controlled Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees the FAA, noted that "no new" air traffic area control centers have been built "since [Lyndon B. Johnson] was in office." The Trump administration has requested another $30 billion to modernize the nation's air-traffic control system.