WASHINGTON, DC. (THECOUNT) — The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop Friday, halting departures from airports across the United States after a communications problem affected air traffic control centers responsible for managing flights throughout the country.
The FAA cited “extraordinary circumstances” and safety concerns in its alert ordering the stop. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy later confirmed that the problem involved communications affecting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.
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“FAA technicians are investigating the issue,” Duffy said in a statement posted on X.
The order grounded departing flights nationwide. Aircraft already airborne were permitted to continue to their destinations, while inbound international flights were to be handled on a case-by-case basis.
The nationwide action followed an earlier disruption at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and Midway International Airport, where the FAA had issued ground stops because of an equipment outage.
Air Route Traffic Control Centers manage aircraft traveling between airports, including flights cruising at altitudes above 18,000 feet. The United States has 22 such centers, which coordinate traffic across the national airspace system.
The FAA had not immediately identified the cause of the communications problem or announced how long the nationwide restrictions would remain in effect. Technicians were working to investigate the failure.
The disruption marked the second nationwide halt of flight departures since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The previous nationwide ground stop occurred in January 2023, when a failure of the FAA’s Notice to Air Missions, or NOTAM, system prevented pilots from accessing required pre-departure safety information.
During the 2023 outage, the FAA temporarily halted departures while it worked to restore the system. The NOTAM system provides pilots with information about hazards, restrictions and other conditions that could affect flight operations.
Friday’s disruption involved communications at air traffic control centers rather than the NOTAM system. The FAA had not said whether the two failures were related.
The nationwide order affected airports throughout the United States, with the FAA citing safety as the reason for stopping departures while the communications issue was investigated.
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