FAA grounds all US flights in third nationwide ground stop in its history

All departures halted across the US

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop on Friday afternoon, halting departures from every airport in the United States. According to Ars Technica, it is only the third time in the agency's history that such an order has covered the whole country.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the stop on X, citing a communication issue affecting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers. He said FAA staff were working to diagnose the problem and promised updates as more information became available.

Officials rule out a security attack

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the order was not prompted by a security threat. He described the problem as a telecommunications outage at the FAA and said flights were grounded out of an abundance of caution.

Mullin stated there was no indication so far of a deliberate attack. He added that incoming international flights would be handled on a case-by-case basis.

A rare measure with a short history

Nationwide ground stops are exceptionally rare. The first and most sweeping came on 11 September 2001, when the FAA stopped all civilian departures and ordered airborne aircraft to land. Commercial flights did not resume until 13 September that year.

The second occurred on 11 January 2023, when an outage of the Notice to Air Missions system grounded flights for less than two hours on the morning of the incident.

Travelers face lengthy disruption

This stop looks set to last longer than the 2023 event. Ars Technica reports that airlines have already cancelled flights scheduled to depart later on Friday, and American Airlines warned that disruption is expected for the rest of the day.

Mullin told the public not to worry about the safety of aircraft already flying. He said all flights were accounted for and that resolving the outage would take some time.