faa issues national ground stop for us flights amid telecommunications outage

Departures halted nationwide

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the government agency responsible for air traffic control, issued a ground stop on all national flights Friday. It directed that departing traffic remain grounded until further notice.

The FAA said the measure was taken because of extraordinary circumstances and for safety reasons. The agency did not provide a timeframe for lifting the stop.

Officials investigate communications problem

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a communication issue was affecting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers. He said FAA technicians were investigating and that updates would be provided as soon as available.

Canadian operations unaffected

NAV Canada, the country’s air navigation service provider, said it was closely monitoring the US ground stop and that Canadian operations had not been affected. The provider said it would continue supporting safe air traffic in Canadian airspace, including aircraft that might be diverted.

Previous nationwide stoppage

The last nationwide ground stop was in January 2023, when the FAA dealt with a system outage. Before that, the previous ground stop followed the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.