F.A.A. Declares a Rare Nationwide Ground Stop

What the report says

The Federal Aviation Administration imposed a rare nationwide ground stop on Friday afternoon, halting all departing flights across the United States after reporting an apparent disruption in its air traffic control system. In a statement and advisory, the agency said the move was driven by safety concerns and “extraordinary circumstances.” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the problem involved a communication issue affecting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers, and that FAA technicians were investigating.

The pause, which began shortly before 4 p.m. Eastern time, was expected to ripple through the aviation system immediately. According to the article, more than 1,000 aircraft were already airborne toward U.S. airports, while tens of thousands of departures and arrivals remained scheduled for later in the day. The FAA said inbound international landings would be handled case by case. United Airlines said its airborne flights would continue, but new domestic departures would not.

The disruption also affected airports on the ground. The article reported equipment-related delays at several major airports, including O’Hare, Midway, Newark, Las Vegas, Orlando, Houston and Phoenix, before the broader nationwide stop was announced. In Denver, some passengers were removed from planes while waiting for updates. The Times noted that the last nationwide FAA ground stop occurred in January 2023, following an outage in a pilot safety-notice system; earlier nationwide stops happened after the Sept. 11 attacks.