Thousands of passengers stuck in limbo as FAA grounds all U.S. flights

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) implemented a nationwide ground stop on Friday, resulting in the halting of departing flights across the country due to a communications outage impacting air traffic control centers. This disruption, which affected thousands of flights, left many passengers stranded and forced airlines to divert aircraft, causing significant international travel delays.

This is the second nationwide ground stop since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, with the previous one occurring in 2023. The FAA attributed the issue to a temporary telecommunications outage affecting 22 air route traffic control centers, though the exact cause remains unverified, with reports suggesting a network update might have triggered a reboot, and no evidence of a deliberate attack.

As of Friday afternoon, more than 10,000 flight delays and over 4,000 cancellations had been reported, with Cirium noting at least 600 diversions, including 496 flights returning to their departure airports. Despite the extensive disruption, flights already in the air continued to their destinations, and authorities coordinated their safe landings.

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