FAA Orders Nationwide Ground Stop, Halting Every Departing Flight in America

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop on Friday afternoon, halting departing flights at every airport in the United States. The advisory from the Air Traffic Control System Command Center took effect at 3:54 p.m. Eastern and orders all departing traffic to remain on the ground until further notice, with inbound international flights handled on a case by case basis.

Officials say a communication and equipment outage is impacting all of the nation’s Air Route Traffic Control Centers, the facilities that guide planes at cruising altitude, and FAA technicians are investigating. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the stop, and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin called it a telecommunication outage throughout the FAA. Officials say there is no indication it is a cyberattack.

Planes already in the air are continuing to their destinations. More than four thousand flights were airborne when the stop was issued, and nearly seven thousand flights have been delayed or cancelled so far. The advisory lists a window to 11:30 p.m. Eastern, but departures are stopped until further notice, with no guaranteed restart time. It is only the third nationwide ground stop in U.S. history, after September 11, 2001, and the NOTAM system outage of January 11, 2023.

Chicago is feeling it too. According to The Times, radio frequency and radar outages also affected air traffic control at Chicago O’Hare. If you are flying today, check with your airline before you head to the airport, and keep it locked here for updates.

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Photo: Avito C. Dalan, Philippine News Agency / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)