FAA Grounds All US Flights Until Further Notice
The government cited a nationwide communications failure among air traffic control systems as the reason for the sudden grounding on Friday.
On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a nationwide halt to all US flights due to a communication issue affecting Air Traffic Control Centers, according to a statement on X by US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. The communication problem stemmed from reports of radio frequency outages in critical Air Traffic Control Centers, including those in Boston, Chicago, and New York. Air traffic controllers rely on designated radio frequencies to communicate with pilots and maintain airspace safety.
In the past, controllers primarily used voice communications relayed through these radio frequencies to direct traffic. However, the FAA has more recently introduced a text-based communication system. An FAA spokesperson did not offer further details about the issue. Nationwide ground stops are uncommon; the FAA previously halted all air traffic on September 11, 2001, and issued a ground stop in January 2023 after a NOTAM (Notice to Air Mission) outage.
Susan Hotle, a professor of transportation engineering at Virginia Tech, emphasized the urgency of modernizing the air traffic control system, noting that a single system failure can impact a large region at once. Earlier on Friday, Duffy had written to congressional leaders, urging them to swiftly act on a $30.1 billion funding request to update the nation's air traffic control system.
If the outage continues for more than a couple of hours, airlines and passengers could face days of chaos, with aircraft and air crews in the wrong places. Michael McCormick, a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and a former air traffic controller, highlighted that an extended stop would disrupt airline systems and cause significant disruptions.
The FAA has recently deployed a new AI tool to assist air traffic controllers, which had been tested in the Washington, DC, region. There is no evidence linking today's ground stop to this new tool. At San Francisco International Airport, numerous confused travelers lined up to speak with airline staff, as the FAA ground stop compounded existing delays caused by high winds.
United Airlines employees announced the nationwide ground stop over the airport's intercom. This developing story will be updated for further details. Louise Matsakis contributed reporting.
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