Mullin: No indication of nefarious attack before FAA ground stop as probe continues
Nationwide stop follows communications issue
Earlier in the afternoon, the FAA had ordered stops at Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports because of an equipment outage. The article does not explain how that outage related to the later nationwide stop.
Mullin says investigation continues
Mullin said investigators would examine all possibilities behind the communications issue. Asked whether it could be a cyberattack, he said officials were not ruling anything out.
Air traffic and Canadian systems
Air Route Traffic Control Centers oversee flights above 18,000 feet, and the United States has 22 such centers. NAV Canada said it was monitoring the FAA ground stop and that Canadian systems were unaffected.
A rare nationwide FAA action
This was the second nationwide FAA ground stop since Sept. 11, 2001. The previous one was in 2023, when the FAA’s NOTAM system failed and pilots could not obtain pre-departure paperwork. Nance described the process as a matter of predictability: air traffic control knows an aircraft will eventually need a path down from the sky.
Key points
- The FAA ordered a nationwide ground stop Friday over an air traffic control communication issue.
- Mullin said officials had no indication of a nefarious attack but were not ruling out a cyberattack.
- The United States has 22 Air Route Traffic Control Centers, which manage flights above 18,000 feet.
- NAV Canada reported no impact to Canadian systems and said it was monitoring the situation.