US aviation regulator halts all departures nationwide in rare ground stop

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which oversees air traffic in the country, ordered a halt to all departures from US airports at about 4pm Eastern Time on Friday and also delayed landings. The agency said the cause was “a temporary telecommunications outage”. It is only the second nationwide ground stop of all departures since the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

What is known about the cause

The FAA said every flight has been accounted for and that international flights will be handled case by case. What caused the outage is still unknown. Markwayne Mullin, the former Oklahoma senator who now leads the Department of Homeland Security, said there was no indication that it was a nefarious attack. As of now there is no sign the outage has been fixed, and it is unclear how long the stoppage will last.

Speaking at a news conference outside the White House, Mullin said the immediate priority is restoring communications so that all aircraft in the sky can land safely.

Impact on flights

According to the flight-tracking website FlightAware, there have so far been 10,543 delays within, into or out of the US, and 3,580 cancellations.

What a ground stop is

An FAA ground-stop order requires aircraft to remain on the ground and bars them from taking off. Planes already airborne are usually allowed to stay in the air. According to FAA data, the agency has more than 14,000 air traffic controllers who handle more than 44,000 flights each day.

The previous case

The earlier such stoppage came in January 2023, when the FAA paused all domestic departures for less than two hours.