US flights resume after nationwide ground stop is lifted

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the US agency that oversees civil aviation, said on Friday night that airplane departures can resume after it lifted a nationwide ground stop. The agency had halted all flights across the country on Friday afternoon, citing "extraordinary circumstances" caused by communications problems at regional air traffic control centers. Airlines cannot return to normal operations immediately, because many of their planes and crews are out of position.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters at the White House that new technology introduced into an old air traffic control system had overwhelmed it. He could not rule out another outage. Trump administration officials blamed "overloaded" and "outdated" systems.

It was the first nationwide ground stop since January 2023, when a key FAA computer system malfunctioned, and the second since the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks. There was no indication that the failure was linked to a cyberattack. Asked whether he could rule out a cyberattack or a rogue artificial intelligence incident, Mullin said nothing was completely certain but that it did not appear so. He said there were no "footprints" of an attack, the problem seemed "mechanically driven", and the cause was still being sought.

Hundreds of flights diverted

According to Cirium, an aviation analytics company, at least 827 flights had been diverted as of 7:05 pm EST: 670 returned to their original airport and 157 were sent to a different one. About 11,000 flights carrying more than 1.5 million passengers were scheduled to depart US airports after 4 pm EST, raising the likelihood of further cancellations and diversions. International flights were handled case by case.

At Chicago O'Hare, travelers learned of the stop from screens showing delays. Seattle software engineer Amber McQuilkin, who was traveling to New York for the League of Legends world finals, said she was receiving little information.

NBA, NHL and college teams were stranded, while NFL teams wondered whether they could reach weekend games. Cargo flights were also delayed.

Outdated technology

Congress approved $12.5 billion last year to overhaul air traffic control technology. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said another $30 billion is needed. Aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo said the problem resembled a September regional outage in the Northeast, but on a national scale.