FAA halts all US departures nationwide after communication outage at air traffic centers

In brief

• The FAA has ordered a nationwide ground stop on departures at all U.S. airports after a communication failure hit air traffic control centers.
• Nearly 7,000 flights were delayed or canceled, according to FlightAware.
• This is only the third nationwide halt of departures, after 2001 and January 2023.
• The FAA has not said how long the stop will last.

Nationwide departure halt

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a ground stop on Friday afternoon that applies to every U.S. airport. Aircraft already in the air were allowed to land, but planes on the ground may not take off until further notice (FAA issues nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports – NPR) (US government grounds all flights across the United States ‘due to extraordinary circumstances’ – TechCrunch). The agency cited "extraordinary circumstances" and safety concerns, without giving further detail on what went wrong (FAA Issues Nationwide Ground Stop ‘Due to Extraordinary Circumstances’ – Gizmodo).

Cause and response

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the stoppage stems from a communication failure affecting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers, which manage flights between airports (FAA ground stop shuts down flights nationwide – The Verge). FAA technicians are examining the problem, and Duffy promised updates as they become available (FAA issues nationwide ground-stop order, delaying or canceling nearly 7,000 flights – The Guardian). The FAA's own website showed an "equipment outage" and was intermittently unavailable during the afternoon.

Scale of disruption

FlightAware reported that nearly 7,000 U.S. flights were delayed or canceled because of the halt (У США по всій країні призупинили авіарейси через збій у системі зв’язку – Українська правда). Roughly 44,000 flights take off from U.S. airports each day, and the FAA employs more than 14,000 air traffic controllers to handle them, according to FAA data.

Rare event

This is the third time all departures have been grounded nationwide. The first was after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The second came in January 2023, when a pilot notification system failed and departures were paused for less than two hours. International arrivals were to be handled case by case, the FAA said.

What comes next

The FAA has not said how long the stop will last. The New York and New Jersey Port Authority, which runs major airports including JFK, referred questions to the FAA and did not confirm whether planes were taking off there. The story is developing.