WASHINGTON, United States- The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a nationwide ground stop, halting departures from all US airports after a telecommunications failure disrupted communications at air traffic control centres.
The emergency order, issued at 3:54pm Eastern Time, barred aircraft on the ground from taking off as the FAA investigated a communications problem affecting all 22 Air Route Traffic Control Centers that guide planes between airports across the country.
The FAA said the measure was imposed because of “extraordinary circumstances” and safety concerns.
Aircraft already in the air were allowed to continue and land safely, while inbound international flights were to be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Communications failure prompts safety action
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said FAA technicians were working to establish the cause of the outage and restore normal operations.
The disruption initially affected air traffic in Chicago before the FAA expanded the restriction nationwide as the communications issue spread to the wider air traffic control network.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication at the time that the outage was the result of a cyberattack or another deliberate act.
Officials said all aircraft already airborne had been accounted for, stressing that the ground stop was a precautionary move aimed at ensuring pilots and controllers could communicate safely before further planes were cleared for departure.
The FAA said it would issue updates as more information became available.
Thousands of flights affected
The disruption immediately triggered delays, cancellations and aircraft returns to gates at airports across the United States.
Nearly 7,000 flights were delayed or cancelled, according to FlightAware data cited by Reuters, with the effects expected to spread across airline schedules as carriers reposition aircraft and crews.
Passengers were advised to check directly with their airlines for the status of individual flights and possible rebooking options.
A nationwide ground stop is among the most drastic traffic-management measures available to the FAA.
It does not mean every aircraft is forced to land immediately; instead, it prevents new departures while controllers manage planes already in the air and work to restore safe operations.
A rare aviation disruption
The outage is the first nationwide US ground stop since January 2023, when a malfunction in a key FAA computer system briefly halted domestic departures.
It is only the second such nationwide halt since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The incident has renewed scrutiny of the ageing US air traffic control system, which has faced equipment problems, communications failures and staffing pressures in recent years.
The US government has already secured billions of dollars for air traffic control modernisation, but officials say substantially more funding will be needed to replace ageing communications infrastructure and improve the resilience of the national aviation system.
