US Flights Grounded Nationwide Due to Air Traffic Control Issues

A nationwide ground stop has halted all departing flights across the United States following serious air traffic control communication issues. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the grounding for safety reasons after a communication problem impacted all Air Route Traffic Control Centres. US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated that FAA technicians are investigating the issue, while inbound international flights are being managed on a case-by-case basis. United Airlines announced that its airborne flights will continue to their destinations, but new domestic departures remain on hold while international departures are handled individually through the FAA. Reuters reports that nearly 7000 flights across the country have been delayed or cancelled. Airlines for America, the trade association representing US carriers, said it is in close communication with regulators and urged travellers to contact their airlines for real-time updates. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters at the White House that a telecommunications outage triggered the ground stop and stressed there is no current indication of a cyberattack or threat to the United States. Mullin added that the situation is safe and explicitly noted that the event is not another 9/11, while also stating there is no reason to connect this issue with a Microsoft system outage from the previous day.

Background

This rare order marks only the third time in US history that a nationwide flight ground stop has been enacted. The first occurred during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the second happened in January 2023 due to a failure in the FAA's Notice to Air Missions system. Congress approved US$12.5 billion last year to upgrade the FAA's aging communications system, and officials recently requested an additional US$30.1 billion to address other issues.