FAA Grounds All US Flights in Third Nationwide Halt
The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop Friday afternoon, preventing departures from every US airport due to a communications failure across its air traffic control network.
Days following an expansion of artificial intelligence tool deployment, the FAA implemented a nationwide ground stop on Friday that suspended all takeoffs from American airports. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy disclosed the action via X, attributing it to a "communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers." Duffy indicated that FAA personnel were working to resolve the issue and pledged to share updates as developments emerged.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin ruled out any security dimension to the disruption. "This is a telecommunications outage out of the FAA. Out of an abundance of caution, we have grounded all of the flights," Mullin said. "There's no indication as of yet that this is a nefarious attack against us." Mullin noted that the FAA would evaluate incoming international flights individually.
The action marks only the third instance in FAA history of a nationwide ground stop. The first occurred during the September 11, 2001 attacks, when the agency halted all civilian departures and directed all aircraft already in the air to return to the ground; commercial service resumed on September 13. A second ground stop lasting under two hours took place on the morning of January 11, 2023, stemming from an outage affecting the Notice to Air Missions system.
Travelers faced the prospect of extended disruptions. American Airlines had already canceled flights scheduled for later Friday, and the carrier cautioned that service interruptions would persist throughout the day. "This is going to take some time," Mullin said. "Flights are accounted for, and there should be no fear to the public at all."