A stranded passenger in Vegas faces a nationwide ground stop as FAA outage disrupts flights

Nationwide departures halted

The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop Friday afternoon, stopping departures from all US airports. The move came days after the agency expanded its use of an AI tool.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a communication issue was affecting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers. He said FAA staff were working to troubleshoot it and promised updates as more information became available.

Officials rule out security threat

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the halt followed a telecommunications outage at the FAA, not a security threat. He said flights were grounded as a precaution and that there was no indication of a malicious attack. Mullin said the FAA would decide case by case how to handle incoming international flights.

A rare nationwide measure

This was the FAA’s third nationwide ground stop. The first came during the September 11, 2001, attacks, when civilian departures were halted and airborne aircraft were later ordered to land. Commercial flights resumed on September 13. On January 11, 2023, flights were grounded for less than two hours after an outage in the Notice to Air Missions system.

Disruptions expected to continue

Airlines had already canceled flights scheduled to depart later Friday. American Airlines warned that disruptions were expected for the rest of the day. Mullin said the situation would take time to resolve, but added that flights were accounted for and the public should not fear.