The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration authorized the resumption of departing flights from all airports across the country after earlier imposing a nationwide ground stop due to a problem in the air traffic control communications system.
“The ground stop has been lifted,” the FAA said in a statement. The restriction applied to all departing flights, and aircraft on the ground were required to remain at airports until further notice. Flights that were already in the air continued to their destinations.
Telecommunications Outage Affected 22 Centers
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that a communications problem had affected 22 regional air traffic control centers that manage aircraft traveling between airports in the United States. The FAA itself described the cause as a “temporary telecommunications outage” and said its teams were working to resolve it.
The cause of the failure has not yet been conclusively determined. The Department of Homeland Security said there was no evidence of a malicious attack. Bloomberg reported that the FBI did not consider a cyberattack a likely cause and was checking whether the problem could be related to a software update.
According to FlightAware, as of 19:15 Eastern Time, more than 10,000 flights in the United States had been delayed and around 4,000 had been canceled. U.S. airlines warned that even after the ban was lifted, it would take time to restore normal schedules.
Flights Began Resuming Gradually
San Francisco International Airport had earlier resumed flights to Hawaii and several Asian destinations. American Airlines said some aircraft were already receiving clearance to take off from individual airports. The FAA subsequently lifted the restriction nationwide.
The Associated Press described the incident as the second nationwide halt of departing flights since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The first similar incident since the attacks occurred in January 2023, when a failure in the computer system for aviation notices led to the suspension of departures across the country.
Sources: apnews.com, in.marketscreener.com, axios.com