US grounds all departing flights nationwide after air traffic control failure

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced a complete grounding of all flights in the United States and Canada, citing an urgent safety concern. The decision, made on Friday, was issued due to multiple disruptions affecting air traffic control frequencies and radar capabilities, according to NBC News. The FAA command center has not disclosed the exact timing or cause of the outage, leaving airlines and passengers in uncertainty.

United States Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy confirmed the ground stop in a post on X, stating that the issue stemmed from a communication problem impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers. The FAA is actively investigating the matter and promises to provide immediate updates as they become available.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin assured the public that there is no threat to the United States and that the situation appeared to be a telecommunication outage, per CNN. However, the vast majority of flights, more than 9,000, were delayed, canceled, or rerouted as of 5:20 p.m. ET.

FlightAware.com, a live flight tracker, reported the extent of the disruption, detailing the widespread impact on both domestic and international travel. The last nationwide ground stop occurred on January 11, 2023, following the unintentional deletion of files related to a critical pilot safety system. Prior to that, the extensive grounding came in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks.

As the news of the grounding broke, a notable reaction came from the musician Flavor Flav, who tweeted a humorous update from the Atlanta airport regarding the duration of the ground stop, adding to the unusual circumstances surrounding the event. This ongoing situation remains a developing story, with full details expected to emerge in the coming hours.