WASHINGTON — All departing flights at U.S. airports were ordered to stay on the ground Friday afternoon after the Federal Aviation Administration issued a nationwide ground stop over a temporary telecommunications outage.
The order, Advisory 111 from the Air Traffic Control System Command Center, took effect at 3:54 p.m. ET. Its listed effective period runs to 11:30 p.m. ET, but departing traffic was told to remain stopped until further notice, so the listed time is not a promise that flights resume then.
“Due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety. Attention all aircraft operators, by order of the Federal Aviation Command Center all airports are ground stopped. All departing traffic should remain ground stopped until further notice. Inbound international flights will be managed on a case by case basis.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pointed to the cause in a post on X at 4:16 p.m.
“The @FAAnews issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers. FAA technicians are investigating the issue. We will provide immediate updates as we have them.”
An FAA spokesperson gave a slightly narrower account in a statement shared with outlets, saying the stop followed “communication issues impacting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers” and that technicians were investigating. The agency has not said what equipment failed. It gave no estimate for when normal operations will return.
Flights already in the air are not being ordered to land. Flightradar24 reported that the FAA issued the order following an equipment outage, and the advisory also cited frequency issues across the National Airspace System, USA Today reported.
The disruption was already large within the first hour. Nearly 7,000 flights across the United States had been delayed or canceled because of the stop, according to Reuters. The FAA itself has not released a count of how many flights or passengers are affected.
Airports told passengers to deal with their airlines. Mike Christensen, a spokesman for Hollywood Burbank Airport, said the airport got the notice just before 1 p.m. PT and knew little beyond that it involved an equipment outage. “Right now, there’s going to be delays, but then even this afternoon … things can get backed up,” he said.
First nationwide stop since 2023
A stop of this scale is rare. The last nationwide ground stop was in January 2023, when the FAA’s Notice to Air Missions system failed and departures were paused for nearly two hours. Before that, the last one followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, CNN reported.
The FAA’s preliminary review of the 2023 failure found that contractors had accidentally deleted files while trying to synchronize the primary database with a backup. Investigators found no evidence of a cyberattack in that case. No cause has been established for Friday’s failure.
Passengers scheduled to fly Friday should check their airline’s website or app before heading to the airport, and watch for airline notices about changed departure times or cancellations. Duffy said the agency will provide updates as they become available.